The Slytherin Table
by Arysthae
Summary: Harry, with some prompting from Parvati and Lavender, get to know the five decent Slytherins in his third year, whilst trying to avoid Ron and Hermione's bickering over Scabbers and Crookshanks. This prompts the timeline to change, to truly end the war for good. A series of drabbles centred around characters, situations and friendships. Not always chronological. Rated K for now.
1. At Breakfast

**The Slytherin Table**

**AN: This is a story that has been playing in my head for a while. It's a derivative point from canon in third year, after Scabbers' supposed death when Harry is fed up of Ron and Hermione's fight and frankly would welcome any place where tense fighting and awkward conversations are not the normal. **

Harry rubbed his eyes sleepily as he made his way down to the Great Hall. It was 6:30am in the morning in February and Harry had had yet another bad dream. This time, Snape chased him around the Quidditch pitch, whacking him over the head with his newly-gained Firebolt, before morphing into Lupin who cowered from the Trelawney holding a whole bunch of crystal balls which reflected the image of the grim in them.

It had woken him at 5 and Harry had been unable to make it back to sleep, so blearily made his way down to breakfast, hoping that food would bring back some life to him.

To his surprise, the Great Hall wasn't completely deserted. The Slytherin Table, which was usually only half full when Harry went to have breakfast, was bustling with people, quietly chatting, laughing and writing. The Ravenclaw table looked like they hadn't moved from their position since dinner, absentmindedly spooning cereal into their mouths, while flicking through the pages of a book or writing an essay. The Hufflepuff table was also sparsely filled with some brave souls who looked quite cheery to be awake or completely exhausted and dripping with sweat (Harry thought of their strong Quidditch team and wondered just how much hard work they put in if they looked used to getting up this early).

The Gryffindor table, was however, nearly deserted of people he knew, apart from Neville who was looking dolefully at his toast. Harry sat down at the bench opposite him and tucked his bag under the table. He was about to pour some cereal into a bowl when Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil flanked his sides.

"Hello Harry! Hi Neville!" Parvati chorused, looking at him and the other boy with expressions of what felt like hunger. Harry resisted the urge to shudder.

"Hi, Parvati, Lavender. I didn't know you usually got up this early." He answered politely.

"We don't." said Parvati, quite bluntly, "Lavender has a dilemma we feel that you could help us with."

At this, Lavender's usually tanned skin turned a shade of red, he thought only Ron could achieve.

"What is it?" Harry asked cautiously, a part of him telling him to run as far as he could away from them.

"Well, she has a boyfriend in Hufflepuff, Stephen Cornfoot? He's been ignoring Lavender, so she wants to go talk to him. But she says that she'll feel awkward going to another table without someone else doing it, so I said that I'd go to Ravenclaw. I've been wanting to copy Padma's arithmancy homework anyway. But then, that's still a little strange so we thought that maybe, the two of you gallant gentlemen," At this, Lavender and Parvati batted their surprisingly long eyelashes at Harry and Neville, "Would help us by going to sit at the other houses as well."

Harry was still struggling to think straight with the fact that it was very early and that Parvati was now simpering at him, with her very attractive eyes and face that Harry had not noticed before. This was the only reason that Neville's eyes had flashed before Harry and he had called. "I bagsy sitting at Hufflepuff house!"

"What!" Harry said, snapping out of his dazed stupor. "You can't!" he said, feeling annoyed as he realized the last house he was left with. "Look Parvati, Lavender, I like you both a lot, but even I'm not going to play nice with Malfoy for you. He'd rip me apart and I'd fight back and I'd get a month's detention from Snape and Wood would murder me because we'd lose the Quidditch House Cup."

Parvati rolled her eyes. "Don't exaggerate Harry! It's a bad habit! Anyway, Malfoy isn't the only Slytherin there is in our year."

"Yeah," said Lavender, speaking for the first time, her voice pitched very high, in a fake and obnoxious tone. "Like, there's a boy called Blaise Zabini. He has the perfect manners and he's so handsome and foreign. If he wasn't a Slytherin, I'd drop Stephen and date Blaise."

Parvati started giggling and Harry felt very uncomfortable between the two of them. Whatever Hermione's faults were, she didn't giggle like that, in a very sinister and conspiratorial manner. "Okay, I'll go do that then. But you two owe me. Tenfold."

"Sure. Thanks again, Harry!" said Parvati, smiling at him with her very white teeth. Harry nodded, picked up his school bag and took a deep breath in. Slytherin table. He was going to go sit at Slytherin table for breakfast. He was going barmy.

He made his way over to the other side of the Great Hall and saw the Italian boy, Blaise Zabini sitting alone, immediately recognizing him from Potions as the boy whom Snape never acknowledged at all.

"Hello." said Harry as pleasantly as he could, "Can I sit here?"

Blaise looked surprised as Harry sat on the opposite bench to Blaise. "Well well. Harry Potter, the boy wh—"

"Yeah, yeah. I'm famous. I get it. Can we cut to the part where I actually get to eat something? I'm actually hungry for once." said Harry, as he reached for some toast.

Blaise laughed and looked at him. 'That was unexpected."

"I do that a lot. I'm a very unexpected person." said Harry dryly, reaching for a knife to butter his bread with and stopped dead still as he saw five different knives on the table next to him.

"Blais-Can I call you Blaise? Okay, that's great. Which knife do I use to butter my toast?" asked Harry as he unrolled the ample collection of cutlery from his silken napkin.

Blaise looked severely amused and pointed towards the smallest knife, at about 6 inches, with a rounded tip. "That one. The butter knife, it's called. Aptly named, don't you think?"

Harry nodded as he looked at the large collection of spreads, deciding on an orange spread which looked like marmalade. "It's very posh here, isn't it?" Harry asked, as he spread the orange substance over the bread.

Blaise nodded. "Somehow, I do believe the pureblood couture of Britain never made it out of the Victorian era. We're much less formal in Italy. Of course, when it comes to our dinners and our parties, we are the most sophisticated. But you British act like stick-in-the-muds all day."

Harry stifled a smirk; he wondered how Malfoy had reacted to that particular sentiment. "I like you. You are funny." Harry said as he bit into his bread and widened his eyes. "This is delicious! How come food tastes so much nicer on the Slytherin table?" asked Harry staring at the delicious combination that was marmalade on toast (which had never tasted this good on Gryffindor table!)

Blaise shuddered and laughed a little as he ate a bit more of his cereal. "The house elves like us better." Blaise said, smirking and Harry frowned.

"There are house elves at Hogwarts?" Harry asked.

But before Blaise could answer, a low, Scottish accented voice sounded in behind him, "What's Potter doing here?"

Harry turned around to see Theodore Nott, whom had never outrightly been mean to Harry, but had been hanging around Malfoy nearly all the time that Harry had seen him. "Nott." Harry said, as mildly as he could manage.

"Actually, what are you doing here? I never asked?!" asked Blaise and Nott looked at the Italian boy incredulously. "The Gryffindor golden boy decides to sit at Slytherin for breakfast and you don't question why?"

Blaise shrugged. "We were too busy being entertained by each other."

"That sounds so wrong, you have no idea!" chimed another, British voice and Harry looked around to see a very pretty blonde girl sashaying her way down to where Blaise and Harry were sitting (with Theodore like a looming shadow.)

"Probably does." said Blaise, not looking altogether fussed. "Morning Daph, Morning Theo. You can sit down you know, instead of being overbearing shadows. We were having a rather nice conversation, before you interrupted."

"Oh?" asked 'Daph' said, as she stowed her bag under the table and cosied up to Blaise, much to his displeasure.

"We haven't been introduced," said Harry, quickly ridding his hands of bread crumbs. "Harry Potter," he said, extending a hand.

"Daphne Greengrass," said Daphne, quite regally as she shook his hand delicately.

"And you?" asked Harry, turning towards Theodore, despite knowing who he was.

"Theodore Nott." He said, sulkily, as he reached for a croissant from the middle of the table.

"Well then, now we're acquainted, we can get back to the topic on hand. House elves? In Hogwarts?" asked Harry, as he polished off the last of the most delicious toast.

"No wait," said Blaise, "You still haven't explained why you're here."

Harry was about to dive into the whole debacle when he glanced at the three of them. "There aren't any more of you coming, are there?"

The three exchanged looks. "Probably, yes. Tracey Davis and Alison Moon like to join us on occasion. And they'll want to join us today." said Blaise.

"Okay," said Harry happily putting off his rather embarrassing explanation of coercion by their flirting, "We'll wait for them. And while we're waiting, you can explain where the house-elves are, why we don't see them and how you know they are there."

"Well," said Blaise, "I would explain it, but Theo's the clever one, so he can. He'll quote dates as well, if you really want."

Theodore scowled at Blaise who smiled sunnily, looking innocent. "Fine," Theodore said, "There have been house-elves at Hogwarts since the day it was built. Helga Hufflepuff had a penchant for saving people, and ended up with a contingent of people's house elves as gifts of gratitude. So she asked whether they wanted work and they all said yes and agreed to serve the headmaster of Hogwarts and make sure the school runs smoothly. We don't see them because they don't want to be seen. House elves are generally shy and don't want recognition for their work. The mark of a good house-elf is that it is never seen or noticed at all. And they are usually found in the kitchens, which is first floor, with the painting of the fruit bowl. Tickle the fruit bowl to get in."

"Hey!" said Blaise, looking annoyed, "How come you didn't tell me this? We could have used it last year, when Millicent Bulstrode refused to come out of the dungeons to even eat after her cat died! We could have gone straight to the kitchen and come with plates, rather than smuggling food through bags and pockets! We could have had proper midnight feasts instead of just sweets and chocolate! It would have stopped Malfoy complaining about his teeth, anyway, the little ponce. "

Harry stared. "You don't like Malfoy either?" he asked, feeling a little incredulous.

"It depends what you mean by like." said Daphne, "We tolerate him, because he's in Slytherin, he's from an old pureblood family and can be quite funny when he puts his mind to it. Do we like him as a friend? Not really. He's a bit too spoilt and self-centred for that. Also, he whines about nothing. And he likes Parkinson."

Blaise looked amused. "Let it all out Daphne. It's okay. You're with allies. But, are you just saying that because he's engaged to your younger sister?"

"Shut up Zabini." She said, her perfect pronounced dialect, just a little frostier.

"Hello, everyone!" came a girl's voice. A pretty girl with dark brown hair in pigtails and a very short green skirt sat down next to Theodore. Another girl with wide grey eyes and mousy brown curly hair sat down on the other side of Blaise, looking quite lost in thought as she studied Harry.

"Hello Tracey! Hello Alison!" said Blaise. "Tracey, this is-"

"Merlin's pants! You're Harry Potter!" said Tracey, her voice nearly breathless as she tackled him with a hug.

"Now, now Tracey," said a low voice from the other girl, Alison as she got up and removed Tracey from Harry, "Don't smother the poor boy. Then how would he save the world again?"

Tracey pouted, but removed herself from him. Harry straightened his glasses and tie, feeling himself go a shade of red that he'd thought only Ron could turn.

"Well, you already know who I am, evidently. I'm assuming you're Tracey Davis," Harry said, addressing the girl with pigtails, pushing away the stammer from his voice with force. She nodded enthusiastically, puffing out her chest. Harry looked away a little, to glance at the other girl. "So, I presume that you're Alison Moon?"

"Pleasure to make your acquaintance," she said sensibly, as she extended a hand out to him.

Harry took it and firmly shook it. "Okay," said Blaise, "Now tell us why you have decided to sit at Slytherin table."

So Harry recounted the whole sorry debacle from Crookshanks eating Scabbers to the debacle that morning, in between bites from a second piece of toast, this time with strawberry jam(still more tasty than Gryffindor bread.)

"So you came over here, because you were persuaded by Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil? That's sad, Potter. I was expecting some epic tale where you didn't want to alienate all of the school and wanted to make friends in another house to save the world and stop Sirius Black. Not because you were escaping your arguing friends and were persuaded by two pretty girls." said Theodore Nott, as he polished off his third croissant.

"Yes, well. My life isn't some epic adventure. Everything is blown severely out of proportion," said Harry, quickly looking at his wristwatch. It was 7:15 am already. Ron would be looking for him.

"So, what they said about you slaying Slytherin's monster, the basilisk, was false?" asked Tracey, sounding forlorn.

"No, that was true," said Harry, absentmindedly scanning the Gryffindor table for the tell-tale sign of red hair. Ginny Weasley was chatting with Colin Creevey, Fred, George and Lee were plotting something, huddled up on the bunch together, Percy was reading and eating but there was no Ron.

"And you rescued Ginny Weasley from the basilisk?" questioned Daphne.

"Yes, yes," Harry said, again as he looked around the bustling people for red hair. Susan Bones was sitting down at the Hufflepuff table, playing with her long plait, someone in Ravenclaw, a first year, had vivid red hair. But no Ron.

"And you went down the forbidden Third Floor Corridor to save the Philosopher's Stone from Professor Quirrel." stated Blaise.

"Yes," said Harry who was now frowning. He wondered whether Ron had gotten into another shouting match with Hermione or was futilely waiting for Harry in the Common Room.

"But that's all heroic!" said Daphne.

"I had help!" said Harry, looking away. Ron would make it down when he wanted to. "Ron and Hermione and clues from everything!"

"Stop sounding so modest, Potter." said Theodore, "Even I can see that's heroic. You make the rest of us look bad."

"Speaking of looking," said Alison who was throwing amused looks at the Head Table, "Have you seen Snape's face at this 'display of unnecessary affection'?"

"Better yet, is Malfoy's!" said Daphne, with an eager grin that looked vaguely scary.

Harry laughed at the furious and reddening face of Malfoy's as he looked at the six of them. He then noticed a pale girl, with black hair and green eyes who didn't seem to be human at all.

"Who's that?" he asked, "The girl with black hair who doesn't seem to have any emotions?"

Daphne smirked. "Oh, she's Sally-Anne Perks."

"Sometimes, I think her parents hated her." said Blaise, conspiratorially, "Sally-Anne Perks has got to be the worst name for her possible."

"I swear the girl is carved from marble!" said Tracey, "She doesn't have any emotions! And she never talks either. Not in class, not out of class, not unless something is really interesting. She's really strange. No one likes her, apart from Pansy. And I think that's because Pansy can just talk at her, without Sally-Anne butting in and saying anything that puts that cow in her place."

Harry snorted a little. "I suppose. Say, you haven't seen Ron Weasley anywhere, have you?"

"He's over there." said Alison, who hadn't really been paying much attention to everyone.

Harry turned around. Ron was looking rather accusingly at Harry and Harry waved him over, smiling. Ron merely raised his eyebrows and sat down at the Gryffindor table, looking moodier than usual.

Harry sighed. "Hold on, I'll be right with you."

Leaving his bags there, he went over to the Gryffindor table. "Hey Ron." Harry said.

Ron didn't respond and Harry rolled his eyes. "Come on, stop sulking. You would not believe how tasty Slytherin food is. It's ten times better than Gryffindor food."

"Just like Slytherin friends are ten times better than Gryffindors?" asked Ron, his voice tight.

"What do you mean?" Harry asked, feeling a sense of horror creep over him.

"You said that we could try out your Firebolt today, since you got it back from McGonagall a couple of days ago. You said we should do it this morning. I was waiting at the Quidditch Pitch for an hour, feeling so stupid as Hufflepuff practised. So I came here, thinking that I'd misheard you and you wanted to meet in here, and I see you cozying up to Slytherins. Having a great time being evil? Planning a 'let's be little evil twats' party with Malfoy now?" said Ron, looking furious and Harry put a hand to his mouth,

"What can I say, Ron? I'm sorry. I completely forgot." Harry said, his voice sounding dull and weak. "It's inexcusable what I did, and I don't know how I can make it up to you."

"You can make it up by going away." He said fiercely, but Harry could hear the tremble in his voice.

"No, Ron. That's exactly how I'll screw it up even further. Now come on. Food." said Harry calmly, forcing the urge to shout at Ron for being illogical to disappear. He grabbed Ron's hand with one of his arms and took Ron's bag in the other, before dragging Ron forcefully to the Slytherin table. Harry was sure that if Ron had not been so surprised, Harry would never have been able to manage it, as Ron was considerably bigger than Harry, but he was surprisingly docile as he stared in Harry in surprise.

Harry pushed Ron down onto the bench and Harry turned around towards the table and grabbed Ron a plate and some cutlery. He came back in time to hear "-We stole Malfoy's underwear." from Blaise and Theodore.

Harry nearly did a spit-take. "What?! Why would you want to steal Malfoy's underwear?"

"Because he was being a prat about how rich and perfect he was, so we stole his underwear and hid it around the dorm. We wouldn't tell him where they were until he took back his statements." said Blaise, really quite casually, for something that Harry couldn't even imagine without feeling a little bit ill.

"Yes, but why underwear?" asked Daphne, looking quite disgusted, "Couldn't you have stolen his robes instead?"

"It's a boy thing," Theodore said, not looking up from his book.

"It is most certainly not!" Harry exclaimed, closely mirrored by Ron's, "No self-respecting boy would want to steal Malfoy's underwear!"

They glanced at each other, realising that all was forgiven between each other, before Ron dove into a speech about why it was unnatural accompanied by Daphne's fervent nods and happiness while Blaise tuned both out, as he casually chomped on an apple. Harry on the other hand leaned towards Alison.

"What's with the really young engagement between Daphne's younger sister and Malfoy?" he hissed and Alison's face contorted just a little.

"It's a pureblood thing. An engagement to make sure the blood runs pure all the way through to the next generation. One of many traditions that ensure your life is dictated from birth. It's why my brother took me and my other brother and we ran away to America." She said, scowling.

"Is Daphne engaged to anyone?" asked Harry, feeling confused.

"Why, you like her?" asked Alison, looking skeptical.

Harry rolled his eyes. "I'm sure she's very nice but I've known her for less than an hour. No, I'm just trying to get my head around all of this. "

"Well, Daphne wasn't as restrained as she is now, when she was younger. When the Malfoy's came round, it was like an inspection of cattle. Astoria was pretty and clean and Daphne wasn't. So the decision was made that Astoria would marry Draco." said Alison, whispering as Blaise now started pointing out the flaws in Ron's argument.

Harry scowled. "That's so archaic!" he said and Alison smirked.

"I think you're picking up vocabulary from the Mud- Muggleborn girl. Granger, right?"

Harry didn't comment on her near slip but nodded grimly. "Yes. She's very clever."

"Much to Terry Boot, Anthony Goldstein and Theo's displeasure." said Alison calmly, her attention being diverted again by a loud chuckle from Blaise.

"I think that I win that round." He called out, with a smirk.

Daphne frowned. "You must have cheated. Right, Ronald?"

Ron nodded. "She is right! There is no way that stealing Malfoy's underwear in condonable in way, sort or form."

"I didn't realize you liked him so much." commented Theodore dryly from where he was reading his book.

Ron roared, turning bright red and dived at Theo, resulting in all of the Slytherins springing into action, knocking Ron backwards as everyone made to protect Theo.

Harry's eyebrows rose as everybody looked like they were going to explode at each other. The Slytherins especially were on edge, some going as far to hiss at Ron. "You guys take loyalty more seriously than the Puffs! I doubt Ernie, Hannah and Susan would do that for one of their lot."

The tension broke a little and everyone sat down and went back to their places. Blaise offered Ron a hand up. He still looked a little dazed but took it, much to Harry's pleasure.

"Sorry, it's something ingrained in us." said Daphne after a while. "Because Gryffindor, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff can safely say they are the good houses and they can ally with each other easily. Slytherin is all alone."

Tracey nodded, looking upset, "The occasional Ravenclaw doesn't mind siding with us every now and then. But we're so isolated, because everyone thinks that we're evil."

"How can you brand an entire house evil?" Alison burst out, looking upset. "How can you say that out of the 70-80 students in Slytherin, every single one is evil?" Ron shifted uncomfortably in his seat at this.

"The fact is," Blaise said, "that Slytherin Rule Number One is 'Have each others backs'. Slytherin are united in front of other houses. If you have any qualms with who's in your year and who is with you, you keep it away from other houses. Slytherins come first."

"So that's why no one objected to Malfoy in First Year!" Harry said.

"Yeah, that and he wasn't too bad in First Year. In first year, you kind of cling to everybody because you are all new and scared and want to do well. You don't want to start fights amongst the people you room with yet. And he was funny. Really." said Theodore, playing with his mousy-brown locks.

"I mean, I thought he was pretty stupid for doing the broomstick incident, but no one wanted to say it directly in first year. In second year, he was a bit of a prat, but it was safety in numbers because of the Chamber of Secrets debacle. Even if we were all purebloods or half-bloods, no one really wanted to risk the Heir's wrath. No one was mean to each other in second year." said Alison, as she started scribbling something on some parchment.

Harry glanced at his watch, 7:45am. Almost class time.

"You know," said Daphne after a moment of silence. "We kind of broke the 'don't reveal things to other houses' rule."

Blaise shrugged. "Doesn't count. Harry instigated it. All his fault. If Snape asks, we'll blame him!"

"You can't!" Harry protested, "Snape hates me enough already! You simply cannot do that to me! He'll give me detention for the rest of the year! He'll flay me alive!" he said, feeling his voice go embarrassingly high pitched.

"Aww, is Harry afraid of the Potions teacher?" teased Daphne and Harry nodded.

"Merlin, yes. If he hated your guts, you'd be afraid too." Harry said, as he flicked to his schedule. Charms next, with Ravenclaws.

"Doesn't stop him being a greasy, bitter git." said Ron, in between mouthfuls of cereal.

Everyone at the table burst into laughter, surprising the last of the Slytherins who were departing from the table and eliciting looks from other tables.

"Well, even if Snape doesn't approve of this display, McGonagall and Dumbledore looked happy," said Harry, as he slipped his schedule back into his bag and buttoned it back up.

"Dumbledore always looks happy." snorted Blaise, as he too started standing up and packing his bag.

"Not always. You should have seen him when he came bursting in to stop me from completely killing myself when attacking Quirrel," Harry said absentmindedly, as he looked through the hall. Hermione was on the Ravenclaw table, clearly taking the lead from Harry, Ron Neville, Parvati and Lavender, chatting animatedly with Terry Boot.

"Wait, what? You attacked Quirrel?" asked Daphne as she too stood up.

Harry ignored her. "What lesson have you got next?" he asked Blaise.

"Transfiguration with the Hufflepuffs." said Theodore, not looking up as he packed his book back into his backpack.

"Okay, we'll meet you at lunch, yeah?" Harry asked as Ron too stood up, grabbing the last piece of toast.

The Slytherins looked surprised. "I thought that this was a one-off?" asked Alison, looking quite perplexed.

"Yeah, it was meant to be. But you are all far too nice. You know, from the impression, we all thought you tortured babies for a living or something." said Harry good-naturedly.

"No Harry, that's the Dark Lord and his followers. Not Slytherins." said Daphne. It was meant as sarcasm, but Harry saw how weary they were that the two had to be so interlinked.

"Yeah, you're right. You should have a choice. To be able to say that you are a Slytherin and still not a follower of Lord Voldemort." said Harry, tactfully ignoring the gasps, "I hope I'll be able to give you that choice one day, in the future."

There was something of a pause as everyone finished packing and stood up looking at each other.

"You're sitting at the Gryffindor table though," said Ron, breaking the tension. "This toast may be better than my Mum's cooking, but I've been too afraid of getting hexed every five minutes to properly enjoy it."

Tracey laughed. "But you sit at Slytherin for dinner. You need to learn some table manners, and I want to be able to say that I taught the Boy-who-lived his table manners!"

Harry laughed as the tension between them faded and they made their way to the Entrance Hall and up the Stairs. Harry and Ron made their excuses as they walked down the Second Floor corridor, past a group of nervous first years.

"Slytherins aren't evil." said Harry, as they queued outside the class.

"Yeah, you're right." said Ron, "They talked like human beings and Blaise mentioned something about chess. I'd love to play a game with him."

Harry smiled. "It's strange though, isn't it Ron? We talked to them for so long, yet we barely know anything about them apart from that they're nice and friendly."

"And sarcastic, mate. The sarcasm was worse than yours." said Ron as fumbled with his homework.

"Really?" said Harry looking quite surprised and Ron nodded.

There was a pause as they filed into the classroom and claimed their usual table at the back. Hermione did not join them this time, instead, made to sit with Terry Boot and Anthony Goldstein. "The hat offered me Slytherin, y'know." Harry said, as he got out some spare parchment and his quill and ink.

"Really?" asked Ron, looking green. "I can't see that. You in Slytherin, I mean."

"Why, because the Boy-Who-lived couldn't be put in Slytherin for any reason, because he'll turn dark and evil?" asked Harry, feeling a little bitter.

Ron rolled his eyes. "Stop being so pessimistic, mate. That's ridiculous. Anyway, if you had listened, I say it's because I wouldn't have got to know you. You would have been best mates with them lot and I'd never have plucked up the courage to approach you again after the train meeting, because you'd have had lots of new friends, and why would the boy from the train matter?"

Harry threw a look towards Ron. "Don't be ridiculous, mate. You were the first friend I'd ever had. Even if I had been put in Slytherin, it wouldn't have stopped me being friends with you."

Ron smiled a little. "That's good to know."

Harry smiled and started writing down the title of their lesson. "If it makes you feel any better," said Ron after a moment, "The hat offered me Slytherin and Hufflepuff before Gryffindor."

"Now you in Slytherin, I can't see!" said Harry with a laugh.

Ron rolled his eyes and chucked his ink-splattered quill at Harry. Needless to say, by the end of the lesson, the ink had spread to most of the classroom and 20 points had been taken from the Gryffindor hourglass, much to Hermione's chagrin. Making up with her would be a different type of quest altogether.


	2. Blaise Zabini and Cedric Diggory

**Blaise Zabini**

**AN: Oh, gods! Responses! You people are amazing! 6 favourites and 15 follows in one night? I think I'm over the moon. I've never had that much response! Thanks everybody! Here's the next chapter, set in canon, after the Third Task of fourth year and Cedric Diggory has died. This is in the 'next few days' that 'passed by as a blur'. A little change from canon, is instead of confiding with Ron, Hermione and Hagrid, he's been avoiding them because all he feels is regret for the death of Cedric and that they wouldn't really understand him.**

**To Guest reviewer: Could you tell me what about the story felt fake? And what exactly you suggest I should improve on? Constructive criticsm is appreciated when I know what to improve on, please.**

Harry sighed as he walked around the school. More and more nowadays, he felt isolated from the rest of the students running around and being happy after the end of their exams. He wished them well, because all he could see were the faces of Cedric Diggory and Lord Voldemort and Wormtail, the traitorous rat. They haunted his dreams and his waking life and Harry could no longer think straight anymore, which was why he was glad that he didn't have to do exams this year, for he had no doubt that he would fail them all.

The sun on his face was nothing compared to the darkness of the graveyard and _'Bow to your death'_. Harry shook his head and kept walking. Maybe if he ran far enough, it would leave him alone.

"Potter?" came a voice from around the corner. Harry pretended that he hadn't heard it, the last thing he needed was someone wanting to talk to him, when he was in the depths of his misery.

"Potter! Don't ignore me!" said Blaise Zabini and he stormed up behind Harry and grabbed Harry's shoulders. His usually casual and calm face was wrinkled in frowns of worry and anger.

"Leave me alone Zabini!" Harry said angrily, wrenching himself from Zabini's grasp.

"Zabini? I haven't been that since second year. You really are angsting, aren't you?" asked Blaise, looking concerned, his voice quieter to avoid detection. "I've been looking for you for an hour now. Weasley told me you were sulking over at the Transfiguration courtyard, not here."

"I'm not sulking!" Harry yelled, throwing his hands up and stalking away.

"No, you're moping instead." said Blaise, sounding a little disgusted. "You know, you aren't the only one who has seen someone die in front of their eyes."

Harry turned around. "What?" he said, feeling a little confused.

Blaise rolled his eyes and smirked, despite himself. "Come on, Harry. Let's find a deserted classroom and I'll tell you the story of Romana Zabini."

"Are you sure that Daphne won't be jealous?" Harry asked, attempting to place a façade of cheerfulness on his face to get Blaise to leave him alone.

"Please, Daphne doesn't have the right to get jealous." Blaise said smirking, tucking his hands into his pockets. "She's obviously mooning over Goldstein in Ravenclaw."

"Pun unintentional of course," teased Harry, getting back into the derision and mockery of the Slytherin speak.

"Of course it's unintentional, Alison has eyes for no one except that American boyfriend of hers. It's why she skipped the Yule ball this year." said Blaise, running a hand through his hair.

Harry shrugged as they reached an unused classroom. "Here good enough for you?"

Blaise nodded and they went inside and perched on the tables. "Look, I, um, know you were good friends with Diggory, especially after Tracey prompted you to make allies instead of enemies. I remember Granger telling me all four of the champions usually had picnics on Saturdays and Theo and I saw you, Krum and Diggory playing a game of Quidditch. I didn't know him that well, but you did and it hurts inside a little, when it's someone you're friendly with that dies."

Harry frowned. Blaise wasn't usually this uneloquent. "Yes. I know. Weren't you going to tell me a story about your mother?"

Blaise rolled his eyes. "I was getting there. There was once a beautiful witch called Romana Zabini born to the head of the most powerful Italian mafia."

"Wait," Harry said, "Italian magical mafias?" he asked, looking skeptical.

Blaise merely glared. "Yes. What is it to you? Anyway, her father loved her but didn't trust her. He died when Romana was 19 and, he left all of his wealth and power to Romana's older brother, who hated Romana because she was a bitch."

Harry snorted a little; it was unlike Blaise to talk like this. He was polite to a fault, usually.

"Anyway, once he'd asserted his power, he disowned Romana from the family and she was kicked out of Italy with nothing but her wand and the clothes on her back. She was clever however and managed to get herself to England where rich and powerful wizards are aplenty. She married a man called Jonathan Sykes, and their family is very rich and pureblood, if not too powerful. From there she got to make many contacts with people and places who admired her mind and her beauty. After three years of a 'loving' marriage, he died in a tragic accident, leaving all of his wealth to Romana."

Blaise now glowered at the ground looking angry. "From what she says, that particular death was an accident. But it introduced her to an idea, that she could marry many men and get their money by murdering them. And it worked out quite well and without flaw until her fourth husband, Raymond Gludgeon. Despite his family name, he was a surprisingly powerful wizard and he truly loved her, even if she didn't love him back. And then, to her utmost surprise, I was born. One kid, which restricted her freedom to murder her husband because she didn't know how to look after me. I am told I had a father until I was four years old and able to obey instructions. Then he was killed in a tragic boating accident."

Blaise looked away and Harry felt just a little less like everything in the world hated him because Blaise had a pretty disgusting mother. "She flirted with a lot of rich men and to her surprise, her fifth husband, Nevan Hornby got her pregnant again with my sister, Phyllis Zabini. I looked after my sister. My mother's useless with children. All I can say is thank Merlin she had a house-elf or I would have starved as soon as my biological father died."

Blaise then turned right towards Harry. "Since Phyllis' father died, we've witnessed the next three murders of her husbands and we know how she did it. I would sell her out to the Aurors, but she's got protection against that. Half of the money she gets is in a Gringotts Vault for me and Phyllis. The moment she dies unnaturally young or is arrested, the goblins have ordered to liquidize the money in the account. So, we keep quiet or we don't have a future. The end."

Harry looked down. "Look, I'm sorr—"

"Don't." said Blaise, sharply. "I don't want your pity. You have relatives who neglect you and insult everything your parents stood for. At least I know my mother partially loves me a little, even if she can't show it. And anyway, it's hardly your fault that my mother is a murderer. So don't apologize for things you haven't done. I just told you this tale to get you to realize, that you aren't the only one to have seen people you cared about die."

Harry frowned. "It's awful though. And you didn't have anyone?"

"Her sixth husband was Jared Higgs. He didn't marry my mother because he liked her. He married my mother because he cared about us. He spent more time with us than my mother and really seemed to care about what we felt, what we said. He lasted 4 years before his house 'collapsed', killing him under the wreckage. We were there and we just escaped. She froze him in place so he couldn't escape." said Blaise, his voice nearly inaudible.

Harry put his hand over his mouth at this atrocity; he didn't feel well at all. "And, you went through this when you were how old?"

Blaise didn't answer. "Look Harry," he said after a gap in their speech, where laughter could be heard through the halls. "When you kill Voldemort, take down the wizarding society with you. Because it's messed up, okay? I'll help you destroy it if you need to. Purebloods are idiots; inbred idiots and I want no part in something like this again. To make everything better, you have to destroy it and start from scratch, because there is no salvaging it now."

"You weren't this bitter before this year." said Harry.

"No," said Blaise, fiddling with his robes, "I wasn't. I hid this anger, because I thought it was normal. I didn't know any better. We were very isolated as children. It's once you come to Hogwarts and you meet families that are happy and normal and don't have murders happening every 2-3 years, you realize that something is wrong. And you notice that it's mostly purebloods that are messed up. And that blood-traitors and mudbloods are happy and peaceful most of the time. It's really something, Harry."

Harry looked at him. "Was this supposed to cheer me up?" he said after a beat and Blaise laughed, normally.

"No. It was meant to stop you moping because you aren't very agreeable when you do that. Your Gryffindor pals can cheer you up. That isn't my job. I don't do happy very often."

Harry nodded. "It's still sad though. It's not fair."

Blaise laughed again. "When has life ever been fair? Was it fair that Cedric Diggory died so young? Was it fair that Longbottom visits his crazy parents every year because someone tortured them? Was it fair when the Smethwyck family were burned alive? None of it is fair. It's merely life."

"When did you become a Ravenclaw?" asked Harry as he hopped up off the table.

"It's all Theodore's fault. Him and his conversations about muggle philosophy. Isn't he supposed to be a hardcore pureblood?" said Blaise lightly.

Harry frowned. "How do you do that?"

"Do what?" Blaise asked, as they strode out of the classroom.

"Change personalities so quickly. You were moody and serious, and then you became sarcastic and casual within a blink of an eye. It's…something I want to be able to do." said Harry quite wistfully. It would have been useful to deal with everything he had.

Blaise looked pensive. "Do you have nightmares, Harry?"

Harry snorted, that was an understatement. "Occasionally. Why?"

"There's a technique called Occlumency, which clears your mind and blocks people out from your brain. A side-effect is that you can't ever dream naturally afterwards. Good or bad dreams. It's really useful, a lot of Italian wizards like to use it, so my mother knows it and quoted the basics to me, and I practiced by myself, because it sounded practical." said Blaise as they passed through the viaduct bridge, "I'll send you the book by owl, once I get back to the house. You have to be able to clear your mind of emotion and any thoughts very quickly. You can do more complicated stuff depending on what the purpose of it is, but that's the easiest version."

Harry looked skeptical. "That doesn't sound easy." He said, as he hoisted his bag over his shoulder and dodged out of the way of some laughing third year boys who were racing down the corridor.

Blaise laughed. "I didn't say it was easy, just the easiest of the three methods. It takes a lot of practice and determination. It took me two years, but it should only take you one if you practice every night before you go to sleep."

Harry scowled. "I'm not a Hufflepuff you know. I'm not very hard-working."

Blaise sighed and smiled seductively at some passing sixth year girls who were fluttering eyelashes at him. "You've just got to find a stimulus. Do you want to have nightmares all the time or not?"

Harry sighed. 'I'll try."

"Have you packed yet then?" asked Blaise as they neared the Great Hall for dinner.

"No." said Harry as they walked in and sat at the Slytherin table.

"But we leave tomorrow morning!" said Blaise, "How have you not packed yet?"

"It was because he was moping." said Ron, inbetween mouthfuls of the last of his beef roast.

"Ron!' Harry said.

"It's true though," said Hermione, as she swung her bag down and sat next to Harry, picking up a toffee apple from the middle. "You've been avoiding us for so long, just hiding somewhere, forgetting that we're here for you, Harry! We're supposed to be here to help you! Cedric's death was awful and I understand that we wouldn't get it, but you should have talked to Cho! Fleur! Viktor! The people who knew him best! You just sat in a corner and did nothing."

"So you recruited Blaise?" Harry asked as he scooped some treacle tart into his bowl.

"Yes, pretty much. He drew the short straw." said Daphne, shuffling a little bit away from Hermione, who had stopped looking hurt when they did this to keep up appearances, merely rolling her eyes.

Harry snorted. "Glad to know you think that dealing with me is a bad thing."

Just then Dumbledore stood up. "The end, of another year. There is much that I would like to say to you all tonight," said Dumbledore, "but I must first acknowledge the loss of a very fine person, who should be sitting here," gesturing toward the Hufflepuffs, he lifted his glass, "enjoying our feast with us. I would like you all, please, to stand, and raise your glasses, to Cedric Diggory."

They did it, all of them; the benches scraped as everyone in the Hall stood, and raised their goblets, and echoed, in one loud, low, rumbling voice, "Cedric Diggory."

"Cedric was a person who exemplified many of the qualities that distinguish Hufflepuff house," Dumbledore continued. "He was a good and loyal friend, a hard worker, he valued fair play. His death has affected you all, whether you knew him well or not. I think that you have the right, therefore, to know exactly how it came about. Cedric Diggory was murdered by Lord Voldemort."

Harry ignored the whispers and scandalized gasps, merely held his head tall, not reacting to the images of a pale, skull-white face and red cat-like eyes that rushed across his mind with a startling clarity to them.

"The Ministry of Magic," Dumbledore continued, "does not wish me to tell you this. It is possible that some of your parents will be horrified that I have done so - either because they will not believe that Lord Voldemort has returned, or because they think I should not tell you, so young as you are. It is my belief, however, that the truth is generally preferable to lies, and that any attempt to pretend that Cedric died as the result of an accident, or some sort of blunder of his own, is an insult to his memory."

"There is somebody else who must be mentioned in connection with Cedric's death," Dumbledore went on. "I am talking, of course, about Harry Potter."

Tactfully, none of his friends even threw a glance towards him, which made him feel a little less like someone on show, on a pedestal.

"Harry Potter managed to escape Lord Voldemort," said Dumbledore. "He risked his own life to return Cedric's body to Hogwarts. He showed, in every respect, the sort of bravery that few wizards have ever shown in facing Lord Voldemort, and for this, I honor him."

Harry nearly fell apart at the sight of most of the hall toasting to him. He shut his eyes and thought instead of Cedric laughing as Fleur pushed him into the Lake when he mentioned that the egg clue needed water.

Once the rustling of robes and people sitting down was gone, Harry opened his eyes again to look at Dumbledore. "The Triwizard Tournament's aim was to further and promote magical understanding. In the light of what has happened - of Lord Voldemort's return - such ties are more important than ever before."

Dumbledore looked over the Beauxbatons students, where Fleur was softly sobbing on her friend's shoulder; the Durmstrang students where Krum looked colder and more distant than ever, and to the teachers of both schools, and Karkaroff's empty chair.

"Every guest in this Hall," said Dumbledore, and his eyes lingered upon the Durmstrang students, "will be welcomed back here at any time, should they wish to come. I say to you all, once again - in the light of Lord Voldemort's return, we are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided. Lord Voldemort's gift for spreading discord and enmity is very great. We can fight it only by showing an equally strong bond of friendship and trust. Differences of habit and language are nothing at all if our aims are identical and our hearts are open.

"It is my belief - and never have I so hoped that I am mistaken - that we are all facing dark and difficult times. Some of you in this Hall have already suffered directly at the hands of Lord Voldemort. Many of your families have been torn asunder. A week ago, a student was taken from our midst."

At this, Hannah Abbott at the Hufflepuff table, burst into soft tears and Ernie seemed to become more pale as he held her to his side.

"Remember Cedric. Remember, if the time should come when you have to make a choice between what is right and what is easy, remember what happened to a boy who was good, and kind, and brave, because he strayed across the path of Lord Voldemort. Remember Cedric Diggory."

Harry brushed away a stray tear for the boy who believed in fair play, Quidditch weather and laughed and bled like a normal human.

"Come on, Harry." said Hermione, as she and Ron rose from the Slytherin table.

"Hold on." Harry said as he spotted Viktor across the hall. He quickly hurried to his side as everyone left the hall.

"Krum." He said and Viktor turned around, looking conflicted at seeing Harry again.

"Harry." He said, looking down.

"Don't blame yourself for the stuff that Crouch made you do under the Imperius." Harry said fiercely, "You're an honourable person. You don't deserve the reputation that comes with being a Durmstrang student."

"Vat do you vant?" Viktor asked dully.

"At your next Quidditch match, do a spell once you've won. Put his name in the air, in front of all those cheering fans. And when the press ask why, tell them his story and that he was your friend." said Harry, feeling stronger than ever, talking to Krum who was nearly broken.

"I vill try, Harry." said Viktor, nodding, "It is the least I could do for him. He vas always nice to me. Put up vith both of us."

Harry laughed a little, still remembering his smiling face when they'd played pick-up Quidditch. "Yes. Yes, he was great."

"Gute Nacht, Harry Potter." said Viktor, and in a swish of the cape he disappeared into the crowd.

"'Arry!" came Fleur's voice, slightly distorted. She looked distraught as she came into sight, her usually pale and beautiful face, red rimmed and overflowing with tears.

"Fleur." Harry said and she burst into tears again and put her arms around him.

"Eets so sad! 'e was always so nice to me! Now, 'e's dead!" she sobbed and Harry awkwardly patted her on the back.

"It's okay. He'd died bravely, fighting a force of evil. He's at peace now." Harry said, not quite knowing where the words came from. Somehow, dealing with others' distress, seemed to bring out the clear-headed aspect of Harry.

"France will join you when zees is over. Now zat, zat, zat villain Lord Voldemort eez back, Britain will need 'elp. My father eez in ze Government in France. I will persuade 'im to 'elp Britain. For Cedric."

"For Cedric." Harry repeated. "Tell him to talk to Dumbledore rather than Fudge. Fudge is an idiot."

"Noted. And 'Arry. Zank you. For everything." She said, her tears now gone, as she stood a little taller.

"It was my pleasure Fleur." Harry said and with that, they parted. Harry climbed back up the stairs leading to Gryffindor Tower. He knew that for now he needed to pack, but tomorrow, he'd tell Ron, Hermione and all of his Slytherin friends exactly what had happened in the graveyard, on the train back to Privet Drive.

Dumbledore's speech felt like a weight off Harry's chest, or maybe it was Blaise's admission? Either way, Harry knew that he wasn't alone and Cedric wouldn't be forgotten.


	3. Tracey Davis

**Tracey Davis**

**AN: Thanks for the responses, again! I love feedback, so maybe consider reviewing?**

**This oneshot is in Fourth Year again, just after his name has been pulled out of the Goblet of Fire. **

Harry sighed as he descended down the Great Stairway again. He had been woken up by a nightmare of Ron cold-shouldering him, woke up and realized that it was true. He'd then been unable to get back to sleep, realizing that it was dawn on Saturday morning and that the sunlight was too strong for him to manage.

Harry had, remarkably finished all of his homework previously, which left him with nothing to do as he walked down the stairs, stopped by them revolving around while he was halfway between the fourth and fifth floor, much to his annoyance. He now took the long route down the viaduct which led him out to the Quidditch Pitch, where to his surprise, Tracy Davis was stretching out her muscles.

"Tracey?" Harry called and was rewarded by her turning around and coming to hug him as she usually did.

"Harry!" said Tracey, smiling mischievously as she hugged him tightly. "What are you doing up this early? Usually, even waking up at 6am sounds like torture to you, It's 4:30am!"

"Nightmare." He said, shortly and Tracey looked forlorn.

"Poor you. I hate nightmares. Was it about the Triwizard Tournament?" she asked, quite unpretentiously curious.

"A side-effect of the tournament. But, how did you guess?" asked Harry, as she started stretching again.

"Well, nearly everyone who competes in the Tournament dies. I remember Hermione saying that at the table. And then you looked so unhappy at being picked." She said, as she sprung into a handstand, her shorts flopping a little.

"Well, yeah. So you don't think I put my name in the cup?" asked Harry, as he placed his bag on the floor.

"Of course not. If you say you didn't, you didn't. Anyway, I would have thought you had enough fame, wealth and trouble for a lifetime." said Tracey, cartwheeling down onto the ground with a thump.

"That's right." said Harry laughing. "I only wish Ron thought the same way."

Tracey now got up sharply, looking very angry. "He doesn't believe you? Your best friend doesn't believe you?"

"He's jealous." said Harry, with a sigh. He was by now used to Ron's insecurities, but it still hurt every time this happened.

"And he calls himself an almost hufflepuff." She said with a huff as she bent over backwards until her body made a bridge-like shape.

"Were you an almost Hufflepuff, Tracey?" asked Harry as her face turned bright red.

"Yes." She said, before collapsing flat on her back with a thump. "I hate bridges. They are so difficult." She muttered as she dusted off the grass from her shirt.

Harry, now unable to ignore what she was doing frowned. "Not to be rude, Tracey, but what are you doing?"

"I'm stretching so I can do a few laps around the lake. If I don't stretch, I'll cramp up and won't be able to walk or sit down tomorrow or later today." She said as she started jumping up and down and shaking.

"Okay…." Harry said and she rolled her eyes.

"It's a way to keep fit Harry. I would think that being a champion, you'd want to get fit too. Magic doesn't solve everything, you know. Sometimes dodging or good old-fashioned running does the trick." said Tracey and Harry blinked at this. There were some days he forgot that Tracey was a half-blood like him and not a pureblood. Because none of the other Slytherins would have even touched that idea with a bargepole. Somehow, people forgot 'muggle' methods of fighting.

"If you insist." said Harry, "But….do I need to dress like you?"

Tracey Davis blinked and looked down at her tight running shorts and crop top. "Right. Yes. I mean, no! You don't have to dress like me. Just in something comfortable. That doesn't have too many layers."

Harry pulled off his school robes to reveal a t-shirt and jeans. "This'll do?"

Tracey nodded. "For now. Next time, wear something that isn't jeans. Something comfier and easier to stretch in. Now copy some of the easier stretches I'm doing."

Harry quickly eased himself into a routine that was familiar from six years at primary school. A lot of the time, the PE teacher liked to make them do stretches for 10 minutes, which Dudley always used to whine about because he'd wanted to get straight to the football.

"Do you do this every day?" Harry asked, as she started to jog towards the Lake.

"Yes actually! I do a little less on weekdays, but on weekends I spend a lot of time exercising. It keeps me in shape." said Tracey as she started jogging backwards to Harry's chagrin.

"Did you go to muggle school before Hogwarts?" asked Harry, as he struggled to keep up. "Some of the exercises come straight from there."

"Muggles have a school before Hogwarts?" she asked, looking curious. "No, I didn't go. My father said that he'd be able to teach me everything I know."

"Your dad? And not your mum?" asked Harry as he stopped for a little bit, panting as they reached the edge of the Lake.

"Yeah. My mum and Dad divorced when I was seven. I was rather sad when it happened, but the silence now is better than the shouting fits they always had. I live with my dad but I still visit my mum on some days." She said quite cheerily as she cartwheeled over the wet grass.

Harry blinked. "So me having nightmares is positively distressing but your parents' divorce is nothing?"

Tracey smiled sadly. "It's not that it's nothing, just that it doesn't distress me as much as it used to. I have weird reactions to things. Dad says I have a mild form of 'histrionic personality disorder'. It's nothing serious; I just find it difficult to judge how to react to things. Some days everything seems like a big deal, on other days nothing seems to matter at all and I can switch moods like that." She explained, snapping her fingers together. "I always want attention as well. I didn't think it was strange as a kid, but once you start talking to other people, I started realizing I was different. I wanted everybody to love me, and when they didn't, I got so angry."

Harry laughed. "I think you're the exact opposite of me! I hate attention."

Tracey looked confused as they started jogging again. "But you're the Boy-Who-Lived!"

Harry shrugged. "Doesn't mean that I seek attention. Despite what Snape may say. All I want is a normal life out of the way of prying eyes."

"You are strange. Nearly every Slytherin wants nothing more than to be famous and rich and prove themselves. A lot of them are already rich, but some, like me, aren't always rich." said Tracey as she backflipped over and stumbled as she landed.

"You know, I keep forgetting that you're a half-blood like me." said Harry with a laugh.

Tracey smiled and kissed his cheek affectionately. "That's one similarity between us, isn't it?"

"I suppose," said Harry, who was by now used to the shows of fondness by Tracey.

"Okay, but exercise wise, you need to be more flexible. Your running skills aren't too bad, but they need to improve for long-distance running. Can you do much acrobatics?" she asked, as she sat down on the grass.

"Not much. I know a little from primary school, but that's it." said Harry.

"Show me." demanded Tracey and Harry sighed. Taking a deep breath in, he did an awkward cartwheel.

"Your legs aren't straight enough, but the rest of that was okay. Try again, and don't worry about falling. The fear is what pulls you down." She said, her voice suddenly hard and cold.

"Tracey…?" asked Harry and suddenly she beamed again. "I'm sorry!" she trilled, looking positively radiant.

Harry blinked, raised his eyebrows and shrugged and tried again. He pushed himself over, imagining that Malfoy would get to repeatedly hex him if he didn't get his legs straight and fell over with a thump.

"Oh Merlin, are you okay?" Tracey asked as she rushed to his side.

"Fine," said Harry, pushing himself up, with a groan as his back protested. "I just don't think I'll be doing much more acrobatics today."

"Oh, okay!" she smiled. "I'm pretty much done anyway. We can try again tomorrow. Maybe you'll be able to run a bit further tomorrow."

"Maybe." said Harry, "I just don't know what physical strength will entail when competing against the elite of three schools."

Tracey shrugged. "I don't know. But shouldn't you make proper use of every advantage you have?"

"What do I have?" Harry asked.

"You can fly like a professional. You mastered a Patronus charm, a corporeal o at that, last year, so your magical skills are powerful. You have a really clever friends who can teach you different methods. You make friends so easily. And I'll tell you now, I wouldn't make enemies where you could make friends." listed Tracey as they walked back to the Quidditch pitch.

"But isn't the point to be able to beat your opponents?" asked Harry.

"No, the point was international cooperations and connections." said Tracey, "You're supposed to make friends amongst the other schools."

"Why did they make it a competition then? Isn't that the exact opposite of cooperation and friends? You want to beat whoever you compete against and soon people start to loathe their competitors for no reason. That's the whole reason for the House Rivalries, because people are competing for some cup."

Tracey shrugged. "Wizards can be strange. I've noticed this over the years. They aren't very good at organizing."

Harry laughed as he clipped his robes back over his T–shirt and jeans. "Whatever you want to say about muggles, they know about how to organize stuff."

Tracey laughed. "I know. Have you seen their TVs?"

Harry smiled as he slung his bag over his shoulder. "I live with my muggle aunt and uncle. They have three TVs. I've seen TVs, Tracey."

Tracey giggled and wrapped her self around Harry's arm. "Anyway, back to the point I was making. Make friends with those people. Invite them for a picnic or something."

"The Triwizard Picnic? The hidden Fourth Task?" Harry asked and she burst into giggles as they made their way back to the Great Hall.


	4. Alison Moon and Safehouses

**Alison Moon**

**AN: Thanks again for the responses! Remember to review~! This chapter is in a random part of sixth year. Even with Snape as a competent defense teacher. Harry decided to continue the DA, because Blaise and Ron both suggested that the War would definitely come to Hogwarts, because it is the centre of magical civilization and that when it comes, the DA should be able to fight. Harry's outsized the Army, increased silencing charms about mentioning the DA and hired Colin Creevey as their Secret Keeper, with Hermione casting the Fidelius charm. (I'll be writing about that after I've finished my character profiling chapters!)**

Harry sighed as he hoisted his bag over his shoulder. Even though he was taking far less subjects this year, each book was three times the size of Hogwarts a History and Harry's bag was close to splitting open with the heavy parchment he needed to take to every lesson. Luckily, it was the free period from 5-6pm now and Harry was planning to get some Potions homework done in the library. It all seemed much easier with the Half-Blood Prince's help.

Harry was about to head down the stairs to the second floor from the common room when he heard a loud cry. Harry quickly whipped around and started running towards the source of the noise. He was literally sprinting down the corridor when he rounded upon Alison on the floor, her glasses snatched by three Gryffindor boys that were in seventh year, clutching her stomach.

"Bloody Slytherin! It's your fault that You-Know-Who's back! You're all pureblood filth!" came the voice from Harry's replacement Keeper, Cormac McLaggen.

"Back off, McLaggen. She doesn't deserve that." Harry said angrily as he aimed his wand at the three boys.

"You a Slytherin supporter now? She's the reason that You-Know-Who has Death Eaters at all!" said McLaggen furiously.

"No, she's part of a neutral family and she is on our side." Harry retorted. "Give her the glasses back."

McLaggen scowled. "You don't know shit! Make me, Potter."

"Maybe we should go," said Connor Daniels, looking nervous, 'Harry's usually right about these kind of things. He is the Chosen One."

Harry suppressed a sigh at the ridiculous moniker but was glad for the opening. "Connor's right, McLaggen. I may not want to hex you because I'll get in trouble, but I have the power to remove you from the Quidditch team reserves altogether. Now stop bullying Alison. You're a Gryffindor, why don't you live up to it? If I hear about another incident again, I'll go straight to Dumbledore."

McLaggen sneered but made to walk away. "Glasses McLaggen. And her wand too." Harry said, realizing that if Alison had been in possession of her wand, the whole incident wouldn't have happened. Daniels nodded and dropped the wand in Alison's lap. When McLaggen didn't move to give her the glasses, Harry summoned them away from him and handed them to Alison.

McLaggen and the other Gryffindor boy whom Harry couldn't name, stalked away but Connor stayed behind. "His mother died yesterday. Death Eater attack. I told him this was a bad idea but…"

"But you didn't have the backbone to stop him? If you couldn't do it, you should have told Hermione or Ron. They're prefects, they'll deal with it." said Harry, fiercely reminded of Remus Lupin's inaction in the face of the Marauders' antics and hated himself for the comparison.

"Rat out a friend?" asked Connor, sounding flabbergasted.

"To stop him from getting into serious trouble or hurting someone innocent? Always. Neville Longbottom had more strength than you in his first year. You disgust me. And anyway, a dead relative is no excuse for hurting someone innocent. That's the path to becoming a Death Eater. Tell McLaggen that, will you?" Harry spat in Connor's rapidly paling face.

Connor Daniels stalked away and Harry held out a hand to Alison. "Are you okay?" Harry asked as she leant against the wall. "Injured anywhere?"

"McLaggen kicked me in the stomach." said Alison, her voice slightly choked. "It hurts a lot."

Harry frowned. "Hospital Wing, d'you reckon?"

"Where else?" asked Alison, her voice strained and sarcastic, "The Forbidden Forest? A muggle hospital?"

"Sorry, sorry!" Harry said as he took her stuff so they could slowly make their way to the Hospital Wing. "Has this happened before?" asked Harry, frowning.

"Yeah, a couple of times. Usually it was just hexes though. Jelly Legs, Leg Locker, Silencer. Nothing much. It was a pain to get rid of the splinters from a missed Reducto, though." said Alison, almost casually.

"You got sent a reductor towards you in school?" Harry asked incredulously.

"I think they were aiming for my brother, but yes." said Alison as they climbed down the Clock Tower steps.

"Blimey," Harry said as they drew near the door of the Hospital Wing, "That's almost worse than getting stuff from Death Eaters."

Alison shrugged. Madame Pomfery bustled over to where they where. "Ah, Mr. Potter. What happened this time?" she asked, in a long-suffering tone.

"It's not me this time. It's Alison." said Harry and Madame Pomfery pursed her lips.

"Come and sit on the bed, dear. What happened?" she asked as Alison eased herself onto the white covers.

"A Gryffindor, that _wasn't_ Harry, kicked me in the stomach. It really hurts. I don't know if it's internal bruising or worse." said Alison, her voice, low.

Madame Pomfery scanned her wand over Alison. "Hmmm, no lasting damage. Bruising, yes, but that's easily fixed. Let me just go find you the potion." And with that, Madame Pomfery bustled off.

Harry sat down next to her bed. "Look, all I can say is that I'm sorry."

Alison frowned. "Why are you sorry? You didn't attack me! You've been nothing but nice to me!"

"Yeah, but the people who attacked you were Gryffindors, weren't they?" said Harry, feeling angry.

"All of the houses, really. Apart from Slytherin. I am a pure-blood, after all." said Alison, scratching her nose.

"Here you go," said Madame Pomfery, coming out of her office with a bright orange potion and a purple one. "Just drink that up and you should be okay by tomorrow."

"By tomorrow?" Harry asked, looking a little annoyed.

"Yes Mr. Potter. Tomorrow. She'll need time for the second healing potion to take effect. The first potion will numb out the pain. It will also take out any inhibitions, so I trust you will not take advantage of this." recited Madame Pomfery, a beady glare settled on Harry.

"She's my friend, of course I wouldn't!" protested Harry as Alison finished the second potion.

"Hmm." Madame Pomfery said, before sweeping away to go look at the fourth year that had sprouted fur.

Alison placed the two vials on the side of the table and looked at Harry, quite intently. "The Hat told me that I could belong to any house, you know." She started.

"You don't have to tell me this." said Harry, feeling more than a little awkward as he perched on her bed.

"No. No, I don't." she said bluntly. "But I want to tell someone, and I trust you."

Harry nodded and Alison took a deep breath in and continued. "Well, it asked me to choose, and I wasn't sure. I mean, I had been a pureblood, but you might have heard the story of my growing up?" Harry shook his head. He'd heard bits and pieces, but never the full story. Alison looked a little surprised but dived right in.

"My eldest brother, Richard came across plans for our entire lives from our marriages to our OWL grades to the dress robes we'd wear at parties. The Moons have always had a rather 'obsessive' streak in our family, but Richard couldn't bear that all of our lives were planned out like that. Conner was six at the time, while I was four. Richard was nine, and quite a sensible nine. He hatched some plot about abuse, it's quite fuzzy in my memory now, but he managed to spring us from our parents' care, into our cousins in America, before the court could decide where to place us. My parents were given restraining orders against us."

Harry smiled. "Good on him."

Alison grinned back. "I thought so too. Richard was my idol while growing up. But there were…problems. Like when Richard's Hogwarts letter came. We assumed that he'd be going to the Salem Academy. I mean, it says that it's a witches academy, but it's for both genders. They just wanted to be feminist."

Harry laughed. "Hermione would approve!"

"She campaigns for a lot, doesn't she?" pondered Alison before continuing, "Anyway, we found the fee for Salem was far too high. And the Hogwarts fee had been paid when we had been born. So, Rich had to go to Hogwarts and there, Mother and Father managed to sink their claws into him when he was in Diagon. They had managed to bribe the judges to overturn the ruling for the restraining order, because they missed their daughter and sons and wouldn't be making the same mistakes again because they took 'counseling'. Rich wasn't fooled of course, but our aunt and uncle are kind of gullible. So now we have to go to them every summer holiday because of some Blood Quill contract thing that Rich has to uphold. Conner and I didn't want to abandon him, so we go too. I can only see Auntie and Uncle at the other holidays now and when we get the occasional week away from my parents. They're quite…constricting."

Harry blinked, feeling a little annoyed. "Do none of the Slytherins have normal lives?" he asked, "Blaise's mother is a murdering manipulative harlot, Theo's Dad is a Death Eater and basically ignored Theo for all of his life, Tracey's Mum and Dad divorced when she was little and she's got some mental illness, and now this?"

Alison chuckled a little. "It's the magic. Magic and Logic don't mix together very well. That's why the muggle world and the wizarding world don't mesh very well. The ideologies are completely different. Magic has rules that don't follow the rules of the universe that muggles have devised and guessed. Theo goes on about the Laws of Motion by Newtie?"

"Newton." corrected Harry, "He's the one who figured out how gravity works."

"Right, and gravity is the force that keeps us on the ground, right? As long as we're on some planet or another 'satellite'?" she asked, pronouncing the unfamiliar words tentatively. Harry nodded. "Well, magic doesn't apply to that rules, because what is 'Wingardium Leviosa' doing but defying the laws of Gravity?"

Harry frowned. "See, I was debating this with Anthony Goldstein the other day when we were in Charms. Somehow the topic of it popped up and he said that technically it doesn't break the laws of physics. We can lift objects up, yes? That's defying gravity. He argues that Magic merely provided a lever or surface underneath so that the object can hover above it. He also argued something about magnetism and polarities being reversed, but he lost me there. I'm not dumb, but I'm not Ravenclaw standards either."

Alison grinned in an exasperated manner. "Theo should have been a Ravenclaw. I'm fed up of being the one he turns to with the Muggle philosophies that he reads about. Thank God, he and Granger managed to be civil to each other and now can conduct entire conversations in this breathless high-pitched tone that the rest of us cannot be bothered to focus on."

Harry snorted, Alison was rarely this candid normally. The potion must have been kicking in already. "Anyway, you were saying about the Hat?"

"Oh yeah. It said I could be in any house, but I wasn't sure about which house I wanted to be in. So, I asked it to tell me what being in each house would be like for me personally. At first, it blustered, saying that it wasn't a crystal ball or a teacup. Then, after some arguing, it told me that in Hufflepuff, I'd have been happy. I might not have been famous, or rich or even remembered after death, but, that I'd have been happy and I'd have had friends and fitted in and that no one would care about my past."

Harry nodded, keeping his gaze firmly on her. She looked quite contemplative and seemed to emulate a feeling that he'd only really got from Luna. "Go on."

"Yeah, right. It said that in Ravenclaw, I'd be content. I'd be able to find out the answers to everything I wanted to know, and I wouldn't know the definition of limits."

Harry snorted at this. "That sounds like something Luna would have been happy about."

"What, the spacey blonde girl who talks about nargles and mistletoe and blibbering humdingers?" asked Alison, looking a little confused.

"Yeah, the one who saved my life when the DA stormed the Ministry. And the one who's dad the editor of the Quibbler. You know, from the DA meeting at the start of this year?" said Harry, gently prompting Alison to remember.

"Oh yeah. I suppose it is." said Alison. Harry understood that they didn't have much contact, but it surprised him that his close friends didn't know Luna that well, when she had been able to help him so much last year with Sirius.

"Also, it said that in Gryffindor, I'd be famous and find like-minded people who'd understand me more. It would be rewarding to me. And that appealed to me, it really did. After everything my brothers have—had done. Had done, I really wanted to surpass them." said Alison, clearing her throat, as she trailed off into her nothing.

Harry remembered with a sharp stab, that when he'd been at Ron's house that summer, that one of the casualties in the Daily Prophet had been a boy called Conner Moon. Harry merely gripped her shoulder and she nodded gratefully.

"But then, I asked about Slytherin. It said that it would be the hardest path. I'd persecuted at every turn, that people would hate me for my house and my affiliation. I'd likely not get a choice in much; I'd probably be forced into my houses' stereotypes. But it also said that I'd be able to make the most change to that house. Because a time of reckoning was coming. I'd be able to change the future and make my mark on history simply by being there. And I was sorely tempted at that moment to choose Hufflepuff or Gryffindor, but a part of me, wanted to change something. I didn't want others to be persecuted for what they were. So I choose Slytherin, because I wanted to make a difference. I wanted to change the world for the better."

At this, Alison took in a deep breath. "I suppose, I knew what was coming, but it didn't quite occur to me fully until some Ravenclaws a year younger than Conner were bullying me in the corridors in my first week, just what I was putting myself into. And, I should be used to it by now, but it rankles, that people judge me by the colours I wear, the friends I have. It hurts here," She indicated towards her heart, a few tears escaping from her eyes as she dictated, "And there are days I wonder whether I made the right choice. Then I remember that the Hat said that it was proud to have sorted me. And then I have the strength to get back up again and keep walking."

Harry knew that telling her she should have been a Gryffindor or a Hufflepuff would be insulting her choice and saying that she was any of their traits would be undermining exactly what she had just confided in him. So instead he said, "There shouldn't have been houses in the first place."

And he knew that she understood what he was trying to say, trying to emulate; that what she was doing wasn't in vain, that people were starting to see that Slytherins weren't evil. That her struggles and her blood and sweat and tears would be worth something in the end. That everyone's blood and tears and sweat would be worth something in the end.

He didn't need to tell her this. She understood. She was Slytherin, with all that entailed. Instead, he squeezed her hand, wished her some rest, then walked out of the hospital wing.

Alison's struggle to do the right thing would one day be one part of many incidents that would inspire the final speech that Harry made as he led an army to war, but neither of them knew that now.

(X)

"Harry! Harry!" Harry turned around. He'd tried again today, to try and get Slughorn to talk to him and had been met with a slammed door and another dent in his confidence of his own persuasive ability. To his delight, Alison was running towards him, her bag flying in all directions.

"Alison! You got out of the Hospital Wing!" he said.

"You sound surprised." said Alison, "I was only put in yesterday for a minor wound."

"Yeah, but Madame Pomfery keeps you in Hospital Wings for ages, even if it is nothing." said Harry.

Alison frowned. "What are you on about? She does nothing of the sort."

Harry scowled. "She does for me. Anyway, how are you feeling now?"

"Good as new, thanks." said Alison, smiling gently. "Have you got some time to spare?"

Harry quickly contemplated. He had to meet Blaise, Ron, Theo and Hermione and some others in the Room of Requirement in half an hour, but he was pretty much free of obligations for that. In Slughorn's haste to escape Harry, he hadn't given them homework. "Sure. I have to go to the Room in half an hour, but apart from that, we're okay.

Alison sighed in relief. "We can go to the room now. Might as well get some privacy on this particular idea."

Harry nodded, and she started to sprint up the staircase. Harry followed reluctantly; he may have been physically able to sprint all the way up and down the great staircase without breaking a sweat, but it didn't mean that he liked doing it. She started panting and stopped at the sixth floor. Harry merely looked amused.

"Come on, Alison. It's not that tough." He said, flippantly.

Alison scowled and spat at him between gasps for breath. "Easy for you to say, you have practice. I don't feel the need to attract every dark creature in the vicinity!"

Harry cocked an eyebrow. "You were there in the Ministry, weren't you?"

"Oh, shut up." She snapped as she straightened, looking even more disheveled.

"Just one more flight of stairs Alison." said Harry calmly and they started walking up to the seventh floor corridor. He waved to the trolls in the tapestry, who were by now, used to Harry being there.

He walked by the blank spot in the wall three times and strode into the room they knew as the Map Room. In the centre was a large, raised topographic map of Hogwarts and Hogsmeade with parts of the Forbidden Forest marked. It was glowing like a hologram and was currently set with stratagem three, the defensive positions they would maintain if the Death Eaters wreaked through Hogsmeade to get to Hogwarts. Harry saw his own figure in the front lines and Ron's back inside the castle with Blaise on the battlements.

Harry then turned to look at the large, magnified and modified version of the Marauders Map that Daphne and Theodore had combined with Hermione to create. This not only marked the names and positions of every person inside Hogwarts and the secret tunnels, it now displayed their house by the colour of their name and their affinity to either Death eaters, Dumbledore or neutrality. It was designed to be easily readable, to Harry's relief. Of course, there was a lot more information on said person when their name was selected and it now had a search feature that Ron had demanded for 'plotting' purposes.

The rest of the space was filled with topographic maps of the area of Diagon Alley, Knockturn Alley, Godric's Hollow and other wizarding towns and shopping locations whose names blurred together in Harry's mind. The room made Harry's head ache, but there was a smaller meeting of the people that Harry trusted the most always happened in here as they devised new plans and strategies (Blaise called them contingency plans, Ron called them being over-prepared.)

"So, what did you want to say Alison?" Harry asked, as he dragged one of the comfy chairs the room always conjured to the map table.

"Something occurred to me when I was talking to Astoria." started Alison, as she raked her fingers through her knotted mousy hair.

"Who?' Harry asked, feeling a little offput by not knowing.

Alison threw him a dark look. "Astoria? Story? Daphne's little sister? Same age as Phyllis Zabini? In second year now?"

Finally it clicked and Harry remembered the Italian girl with a penchant for singing being accompanied by a blonde girl whose appearance was always impeccable and unremarkable. "The girl with pigtails who never looks like she's ever done any hard work in her life?" Harry asked.

Alison nodded. "Yes. And she looks that way because she probably never has. Magic and house-elves spoil wizards more than they know."

Harry scoffed. "You're one to talk, Miss 'I-can't-even-climb-the-stairs-without-panting'." He pointed out.

Alison rolled her eyes. "Well, I never exactly claimed to be the picture of health." she said, motioning to her scrawny figure and glasses. "And for your information, my aunt and uncle were muggles, so we did a lot of physical stuff. Well, Rich and Conner did."

Harry snorted. "We're tangenting again." He said, a word that he had made up with Anthony after a session of Potions 'study' had ended up being an hour long debate about whether they celebrated Beltane and Samhain with as much vigour as the festivals deserved, and whether DADA teachers were all secretly in a league to destroy Harry Potter.

"Right. Yes. You're right." She said absently as she adjusted her glasses. "Well, Astoria is firmly neutral, She doesn't want to be part of the War at all, because she doesn't have an opinion either way about Muggle-borns and Purebloods. All she wants to do is live without that kin of worry on her shoulders. And she's terrified that she'll get dragged into the war because of Daphne's position. And she doesn't want to be a target of Death Eaters or of us when it comes down to it. And it occurred to me that we need somewhere for people to be safe from both Voldemort and the Order."

Harry felt more than a little curious and angry at this. "Why do you think they'd need protection from us?"

Alison laughed. "You really can't see it?" When Harry shook his head, she threw him a fond, exasperated look that Harry was sure she had copied from Hermione. "Imagine peoples' reactions if a known death eater wanted to defect and not be judged. He'd need somewhere where he could hide from both sides and to be frank, if it was someone like Severus Snape or Bellatrix Lestrange, even you would want to stop them."

As Harry made to deny it, Alison merely threw him a skeptical look. "Don't lie to me Harry. It only makes you look sillier."

Harry sighed. "Fine. Continue in your brilliant idea." Harry said, as he sunk into his chair.

"Well, if we created safehouses all over the world where people could stay without fear of being persecuted by either side, wouldn't that be better for all of us? You know, less people fighting, less people dying. And you know one of the contingency plans that Weasley has is for the Ministry collapsing. It seems likely, especially with how much influence the Ministry has over everybody. We all remember last year's slander. If it does collapse due to pressure from Voldemort, wouldn't having this particular contingency plan help people escape his grasp?" said Alison, as she played with her fingers, looking nervous.

Harry scowled. "It sounds like a fine idea, but what if someone abuses it? They go to the safehouse, promising compliancy and then they kill everyone there or reveal our secrets to Voldemort?"

Alison smiled, a cruel smile that starkly reminded Harry that she was a Slytherin, with _all_ that entailed. "We'll make them swear a vow. A magical vow to ensure their loyalty to the safehouse. And the Fidelius, of course."

Harry winced. "Aren't magical vows intensely painful?"

Alison shrugged. "Do you want safehouses, or not? A little pain for the safety measures, that cost your parents their lives when implemented improperly, should be nothing."

Harry didn't wince. He was sure that Sirius would have and Remus would, but he had never known his parents, and stories were nothing like memories of people. They were tainted by the feelings that the teller had of the person. He had wondered about just how much his parents had trusted in people. Harry trusted people only after he was sure of their loyalty, nowadays. He was sure, that if it weren't for the War restarting, he would have been more open, more free.

No chance of that now. Everyone was either overcompensating for what they had believed last year, still attempting to stick their head in the sand or being deliberately unhelpful. Apart from the DA, of course. Membership had shot up this year, after he'd let Lavender and Parvati loose on the school, spreading tantalizing hints about a secret club run by him. Harry'd then got Ginny, Katie Bell and Padma Patil on checking whether they were trustworthy with the secret or not. And once they were in, they were an army.

A proper one now, not just in name anymore. Not only did they learn the spells necessary to defend themselves, they made themselves healthier and built up their stamina. They planned attacks and listened out for information amongst the school and amongst the adults of the society. The Order was doing next-to-nothing offensive nowadays, and the DA had vowed to change that.

Valentines Day was coming up soon, and with it, rumours of an attack on Hogsmeade from the Slytherin Common Room. Harry, Blaise and some of the Hufflepuffs had already set up warning alarm systems through the shops of Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade, but Harry wanted them in other major wizarding towns and housing areas. However, while shopkeepers and landlords were usually happy to have extra precautions for their investments, everyone was more reluctant about installing them to their own homes.

Perhaps Magical Vows and warning alarms on homes were a little extreme for the majority of wizarding people, but Harry didn't want to die like his parents. "We'll want them set up soon then. What would we use though?"

Alison frowned pensively. "I hadn't got that far yet. To be honest, I thought you'd shoot me down immediately."

Harry lifted an eyebrow. "Alison, I didn't shoot down Justin Finch-Fletchley's ideas about a Potions-Water Gun, did you really think I was going to shoot down something much more plausible?"

Alison laughed as Ron and Blaise walked into the room, in deep conversation about who knew what.

"Hello Harry, hello Alison! What're you doing here?" asked Ron, as he noticed that there was one extra person than required.

"She's presenting an idea I think has some merit." Harry said, as he tapped his robes quickly to temporarily transfer them to the replica of the general clothes he wore at the DA, the soft dragon armour and cape to divert spells. Unfortunately, it was flawed and Harry found, that while the appearance was exact, the clothing still felt like the thick wool of their unform.

"You can't transfigure dragon skin." said Ron, looking amused as Blaise drew a chair.

"And how exactly do you know that, Weasley?" asked Blaise dryly.

Ron rolled his eyes. "I do have a brother in the business of dragon taming. I know a bit about dragons. Charms, Hexes, Curses and Transfigurations don't work on dragon hide. You can't change anything into dragon hide either. That's why it's so useful as armour in battle. Remember?" Ron said as he checked over the map of Hogwarts.

"Yeah, yeah!" Harry said with a laugh as he turned outwards to face the door.

"So what is this miraculous idea?" asked Blaise, looking at Alison.

"I'll tell you once everyone's here," Harry interrupted, "It'll save poor Alison's voice."

Luna, Neville, Anthony Goldstein, Hannah Abbot and Ernie Macmillan all walked in together, looking respondent in their Lieutenant outfits, despite the awkward looks they all displayed.

"Hello everybody!" Luna said, looking happy, her protuberant eyes magnified in their wonder at the Room's appearance, despite this being the sixth meeting this year. "How are you all?"

There were a chorus of 'good's and 'fine's from everybody as they took their seats.

Anthony looked particularly happy. "What's up Anthony?" Harry asked, as Anthony ran his fingers through his brown hair.

"Su Li finally agreed to go out with me!" said Anthony, looking very happy.

"That's great news, mate!" said Harry, recalling the pretty Chinese girl with large glasses and a diminutive figure.

Anthony merely beamed and started humming. Harry mused that this was odd behaviour for Anthony, who much preferred to recite the laws of thermodynamics rather than even touch music with a barge-pole, but for some reason, he seemed to be humming Michael Jackson's music. In particular, Billy Jean.

"You know, that isn't really the song you'd want to hum when talking about love." Harry commented as Daphne and Theo came into the room, looking suitably gloomy.

"That's all of us, then!" concluded Blaise, looking animated.

"Not quite," said Ron, "We're missing Hermione. Harry, could you do the galleon thingy?"

Harry nodded and pulled out his fake galleon. It was a lot more complex Protean Charm compared to last year. Now Harry could specify to whom the message reached. He sent a quick message telling to get here, uniform or not, before pocketing the coin and nodding to Ron who sat down again.

Harry smirked in amusement as Blaise started to interrogate Theodore about what Malfoy's agendas were. For all of his might as the leader of the DA, he was barely involved in the day to day running of the organization. He left that to his lieutenants. He supposed, that to anyone from the outside, it could seem like he was a puppet or figurehead, when in reality, Harry was building the others' self confidence.

Hermione burst into the room, bringing Harry out of his musings, quite sharply. "Sorry I'm late, the library was so crowded. All of the NEWT students were in there for Snape's class. I couldn't get out."

Anthony smirked. "We still got here. You should be ashamed about your tardiness." Anthony and Hermione had something of a hate-despise relationship, where both of them insulted the other in as polite a way as possible. Harry found it terribly amusing, but Hermione was continually irked by it all.

"Come on." Blaise whined, "Get it over with. I want to know what Alison has for us."

"She has something for us?" asked Hannah looking confused.

"Why did you think she was here? Entertainment value?" asked Theo, looking amused.

"Actually, I was here to propose an idea. Safehouses. Places where neutrals can stay without fear of being harmed by either side. Ours or His." said Alison, standing up as if she had rehearsed it (and who knew, maybe she had?).

"Why would our side harm people?" asked Ernie, looking most flustered by this announcement. Neville nodded in agreement.

Luna looked less dreamy. "Didn't you hear, Ernie? The Aurors are now permitted to use Unforgivables against those they deem a threat to the society. Daddy takes it as proof of the Heliotrope conspiracy coming to light. Minister Scrimgeour is going the same way as Minister Fudge."

"At least Scrimgeour isn't eating goblin pies like Fudge." quipped Blaise and Daphne snorted and almost fell out of her chair with suppressed laughter.

"I put it this way to Harry, If Bellatrix Lestrange wanted to truly defect, most people on our side wouldn't allow her to. These safehouses would protect her from both sides' revenge and the people we considered dangers to society, would have to swear magically not to fight in this War again." said Alison, orating calmly, despite Ernie and Lunas' interruptions.

"Okay, that makes sense," said Ron, "But where would they be? And how would we get supplies to them? An who would sponsor them? We'd need people that Voldemort would be afraid to stand up against. Or at least, aware that playing along is better than fighting back."

"I'd say houses that aren't being used by the rich families of the wizarding world would be ideal." said Neville, looking worried. "The family homes, things like that."

"The Moons have three houses. One in England, one summer home in Florida and another in some remote island off the Indonesian Coast. I'd be happy to pledge the last two over to be safehouses. I'm sure my parents would disagree about it, but I'll win them over." said Alison, looking fierce.

"The Greengrass Manor would be open to anyone who needed refuge. We may be purebloods, but we aren't bigoted and we aren't Voldemort supporters. My parents and my younger sister want nothing to do with the war. If they can be under the agreement, Greengrass Manor and all it subsidiaries are open to the neutral scheme. Anyway, if we supported it, the Death Eaters, if not Voldemort would be wary about standing against he neutrals; we Greengrasses are a formidable business force." said Daphne, looking haughty, as she tossed her short blonde hair behind her.

"My mum's got plenty of houses from all of her husbands. And she doesn't really care about this whole blood thing. In Italy, it's about whose got the most money, than anything you can't help, like your blood." said Blaise, shrugging, "I'm sure if I tell her that I can guarantee her neutrality and her marrying habit, she'll help us with the houses. There are three of them excluding our actual house."

"So that's six houses so far," said Harry.

"Seven." said Ernie, "Macmillan Farm isn't large in the house space, but we grow 75% of British Wizards' food. We have a lot of land. Most of the food goes towards Hogwarts and the Ministry. If we cut the Ministry out of the equation, we could probably feed all of the safehouses."

"Might I suggest house-elves?" asked Hannah. When Hermione crossed her arms and huffed, Hannah hesitantly continued, "I know that Lydia Fawcett's family breed house elves and there are so many families extinguished now, that she has a surplus of elves. We could buy them potentially, and use them to help cook, clean and generally upkeep the houses." At Hermione's look of wrath, Hannah quickly added with a weak tone, "With payment and days off work, obviously."

"Where's all of this money going to come from though?" asked Anthony, quite sensibly. "It's a lot of money to buy house-elves and while we could potentially get discounts for the food from Ernie's Uncle, if we're paying the house elves too, we're going to run out of money fairly quickly."

"That's where I come in." said Harry, looking quite pensive. "I have a lot of money in my account. I asked the goblins around how much, and they estimated that I had around 500,000 galleons in cash and plenty of investments in major businesses that get me lots of money. Of course, it has been sitting there gathering interest for about 10 years before I showed up, but the Potters were very rich before that. I'll fund all of this. I'm the last Potter, and I can't think of a better way to use it."

Ron looked overwhelmed and even Blaise lifted his eyebrows. "Blimey mate," Ron exclaimed after a few moments of awed silence, "You could buy Hogwarts, the Ministry and Professional Quidditch teams and still have money to spare!"

Harry looked unimpressed. "Well, I'm not spending it on any of those. I'm funding the war effort. End of."

And Alison grinned at him as they got back to discussing other things they meant to do with the DA. Harry had a feeling that these safehouses would come in handy.


	5. Daphne Greengrass and Loopholes

**The Slytherin Table**

**Daphne Greengrass**

**AN: Thanks for all the lovely feedback, but I want more~! Come on people love me with feedback! Just a good, or update soon makes me feel joyful!**

"_My parents are dead!" Harry bellowed._

"_And mine could be going the same way!" yelled Ron._

"_Then GO!" roared Harry, "Go back to them, pretend you've got over your spattergroit and Mummy'll be able to feed you up and—"_

_Ron made a sudden movement: Harry reacted, but before either wand was clear of its owner's pocket, Hermione had raised her own._

"_Protego!"_

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Chapter 15, the Goblin's Revenge

Once she'd done that, Hermione burst into tears, which broke both Harry and Ron out of their stupors of hate. Harry glanced over to Hermione, her face distorted by the clear bubble of the Protego charm, was turning red and filled with tears.

"Hermione?" Ron asked, looking concerned and she scowled at him.

"Both of you!" she screamed, "You're both as bad as each other!"

Harry felt his head clear suddenly, of any hate and anger, pushed aside for once, in a way that Harry had never been able to accomplish before, even with Occlumency.

Harry rummaged through his mokeskin pouch, removing a scrap of parchment, with the lost of all the safehouses. "We can't go on like this." He said, hearing his voice flat and emotionless.

"Harry?" they both said, turning around, suddenly looking scared.

"I said that we can't go on like this. We're killing each other and we don't have any new ideas on where to go. In that way, Ron was right. We need new creativity and frankly, we need to get away from each other." stated Harry, feeling nothing as he recited the facts.

"What….what do you mean?" asked Hermione, her face now turning puffy from her tears.

Harry in response merely handed her the list. "Pick a safehouse."

"What?!" said Ron, looking furious.

"I said, pick a safehouse, Ron. Or are you deaf as well as spiteful?" asked Harry blankly.

"Harry, you're not well. Don—"

"Don't insult me Hermione. I know exactly what I'm doing. We need some time away from each other. You can see that. You aren't blind. We're bouncing off of each other. So we'll take a break. It's Halloween. We should meet up again Christmas. We'll have more ideas by then." said Harry, as calmly as he could while not sounding emotionless, as this seemed to be what was scaring them.

"The Potter house has a library, doesn't it?" asked Hermione, looking down the list.

"Mm." Harry said, "I'm sure that Blaise's main house will too, but I'm not sure about Mrs Zabini's reaction to hosting a muggleborn."

"Yes, the Potter house sounds like where I want to stay." said Hermione. "Your grandparents lived there, right?"

Harry nodded, "It was warded quite well too, even before you and Anthony did the warding spree last Spring. There should be a couple of muggleborns here too. Sue Finch-Fletchley and Natalie McDonald's dad."

Hermione nodded and looked at the tent. "What should we—"

Harry shook his head. "Leave it. I'll take it. If we need to message each other, use the galleon."

Hermione nodded and quickly checked around the tent for her books, and when she discerned that she hadn't left much lying around, she nodded to Harry, threw a beseeching look to Ron before turning on the spot and disapparating with a crack.

Ron looked concerned, but Harry could see the surly atmosphere lurking around him. "Ron, give me the horcrux." Harry finally managed, "You'll rest easier without it."

Ron looked at him. "Look mate, I'm sorry about what I said about your parents, don't get me wrong, it was stupid and spiteful. But you just put aside my whole family's health for that reassurance that Dumbledore was right."

Harry let out a short blast of air. "Isn't that what we did by becoming hermits to find the horcruxes? We left behind our family obligations to focus on these horcruxes kill them, even if they killed us. It's why I broke up with Ginny, it's why you and Hermione have been on tenterhooks this whole time, it's why most of us have split up and gone into hiding, why Neville is running the DA in my absence. It's why we're here, Ron. You can't complain now."

Ron sighed, and pulled off the locket. In front of Harry's eyes, he seemed to gain some semblance of confidence and puffed up to his proper height. Harry felt himself smile sadly. "Where are you headed, mate?" asked Harry.

"Anywhere, I guess." said Ron, looking away from Harry's piercing gaze.

"Ron." Harry said, the word filled with anger, hate, kindness, annoyance and sheer torment. "Please."

There was a pause. Ron didn't need to scan the list; he knew their names by heart. "I think I'll go to Blaise's house. His mother can't complain, I am a pureblood and anyway, it will be easier to initiate contact with him about plans." Ron said looking away. "Harry mate," he said suddenly, "Where are you going? You won't search for these horcruxes alone, will you?"

Harry bit his lip to school his face in the mask of calm. That had been exactly what he had been planning to do. It was obvious that they had other priorities than the horcrux hunt and however it had pained him to make the decision to go it alone, he'd made it. "Of course not Ron." said Harry calmly.

But Ron was Harry's oldest and best friend. "Swear it to me, Harry. Swear it on your parents' graves. It's all very well us not being able to put up with each other for a few weeks, but if you go it alone, you'll get yourself killed. And I might be angry at you mate, but I don't want you dead."

Harry looked away, angrily. Merlin, Harry couldn't break this oath and Ron would insist on tagging along with him if Harry didn't swear. "I swear on my parents' graves that I won't continue the horcrux quest alone."

Ron smiled and relaxed. "Okay mate. I'll see you again around Christmas, yeah?"

Harry nodded. "Remember, no communication by owl or by floo. If you must, use your DA galleon, but try not to."

Ron nodded, saluted, then twirled on the spot and disappeared leaving Harry to his thoughts. Of course, despite Ron being a brilliant strategist and chess-player, he hadn't spent as much time as Harry had with Slytherins, who knew lawyer tricks like the back of their hands. There were several loopholes in the oath that Harry had sworn and Harry would be sure to overcome them.

As it was, he'd need time to pick it apart and a brilliant mind to achieve that. Hermione was gone, Blaise was at Hogwarts, Theo was a Death Eater and Dap…Daphne. She was at home because she'd been revealed last year when they had protected Hogsmeade. Despite the mandatory Hogwarts attendance, Daphne and Astoria had managed to escape, due to the sealing of Greengrass Manor to anyone who meant harm to its inhabitants or to the structure itself.

Harry was sure there were more wards and alarms than that on the Manor, as even Harry could see the loopholes in that particular statement but it didn't matter. Daphne was whom he needed to see about loopholes and horcruxes.

Harry quickly shrunk the tent and stuffed it into his mokeskin pouch. As he removed the warding and charms around the place, Harry mused on how cold it was for October. It was Halloween or Samhain as Anthony liked to protest, but even so, there wasn't quite this much need for the weather to feel so chilling. He wondered what Hogwarts looked like under the reign of Snape. Would there still be the giant floating pumpkins filled with chocolate in the Great Hall and contingents of ghosts parading through the corridors? Would the suits of armour still echo strange noises to scare the first years and amuse the older years?

As the last charm was pulled down, Harry felt the cold breeze whip past him. Taking a deep breath in, Harry apparated to Greengrass Manor with a crack.

Harry crashed onto the grass in an unsteady landing fulcrum point. It was raining in a miserable, cold way. It was heavy and lashed against Harry's face. It was worse than Scottish weather at Hogwarts, which was saying something. Through the thick cover of rain, Harry's vision was clouded. Harry tapped his glasses with an 'Impervius' impatiently but to his surprise, still no house on the distance appeared. It would seem that he had misjudged his apparition.

Swearing under his breath, Harry drew his jumper around him a bit more and fumbled with his wand. "Point Me, Greengrass Manor." Harry said, his teeth chattering as the cold rain seemed to reach even his insides.

The wand pointed ahead of him through the fog of rain. Harry started walking.

After a few minutes walking through the unchanging background and foliage, Harry decided most grumpily that he was freezing and cold and that he did not like it. Even at the Dursley's cupboard, he had been warm, if uncomfortably so, most of the time. He made to tap himself with a warming charm before remembering that it would disrupt the Point Me spell.

Harry swore again. He really should have thought about this beforehand. Now he was cold, wet and going nowhere. Why did it have to be raining? He knew it was England, but even in Scotland, the rain had never been this depressingly cold and wet. Why would the moors of Northumberland be such a haven for rain?

He thought again of the warm fires of Hogwarts and smiled at the thought of the Gryffindor Common room's blazing warmth. Fred and George were usually howling about something funny there with Katie, Lee, Angelina and Alicia usually playing cards in the corner. Colin and Dennis Creevey would be shrieking about something to do with their cameras and Percy would berate them for disturbing his study. Neville would be chasing after Trevor with lazy attempts at help from Seamus and Dean, who would be setting their Transfiguration homework on fire in their absentmindedness. Parvati and Lavender would be giggling on the stairs, magazine well in hand with some of the Fourth Years and Third Years as their loyal cohorts-in-training. And Ginny and he would be curled up in the larger armchair by the fire, her lazy cat-like body curled up to his, just being close to each other.

And inevitably, thoughts about Gryffindor brought back the memories of Ron and Hermione who were his near constant companions the whole time. Harry swore angrily as the Point Me charm went haywire swirling around madly in confusion. Brilliant. Everything broke eventually, didn't it?

Dammit, why did they doubt him? Why would Ron doubt him? He'd never kept secrets from Ron and Hermione. He'd told them about the prophecy first, he'd told them about his doubts, his troubles, his worries. He'd opened his heart and told them everything. Why would he keep something from them now? Why would Ron, his consummate best friend through it all, abandon him now? Why would Hermione, the one who'd always believed in him discuss him behind his back?

To his utmost anger and surprise, he felt tears pour down his face. It wasn't like anyone would have been able to tell, he was so soaked, but Harry knew that he was crying over their betrayal. And it hurt and ached that they would doubt him. That they thought that he wasn't fit to do it. That they thought that he was useless. Harry wondered, whether this was what Neville had gone through all of those years, before Harry had appointed him the head of the DA in the case of his absence.

Harry felt himself sink into the ground. Everything ached, everything hurt and now he cried out to Dumbledore. Why hadn't Dumbledore left him anything? Why was he fumbling like a child in the dark? Why was everything falling to pieces around him? Why wasn't he in control anymore? Why was Voldemort winning?

It wasn't supposed to be like this, Harry knew as, he curled into a ball. He wondered whether things would be different if Sirius had survived. If Amelia Bones hadn't died. If there was just one more person on their side. And now Harry knew that if Snape hadn't killed Dumbledore, this would never have happened. The greasy git. The slimy bastard.

He wanted the weight of the world to not be on his shoulders. Had his parents survived, would he have had to bear this burden? The Boy-who-lived, the Chosen One, Undesirable Number One, lying schizophrenic freak. He'd been called so many things when all he'd ever wanted was to be Harry.

Harry took in a shaky breath, the more he cried, the more the emotions seemed to leave him. It was almost more effective than Occlumency. As he felt his emotions seep away with his tears, he felt the air around him morph.

Perhaps that wasn't the right word. The air hadn't been right from the beginning, he just hadn't noticed until now. It wasn't like normal air. There was something that was just a tad too heavy for it to be natural. Harry had played Quidditch several times in pouring rain and it had never been like this before. He'd even noticed this before; it had been far too cold, too wet, too miserable….of course. It was artificial. Magically produced. How had he not detected that fact before?

Harry lifted his wand and quickly performed a scanning spell. He smirked as the results came back. He was indoors. Inside a house. His apparition had been perfect after all. This was the defence that Mr. Greengrass had been so confident about. If Harry had been in his right mind, he was sure that he would have noticed it immediately. As it was…they had fooled him, well and truly.

"You win, Greengrass. Let me out, now." declared Harry, feeling a little foolish as the wind whipped around him.

To his surprise, nothing happened. Harry had also detected that there were alarms set all over this inner room. The Greengrasses had to be watching him. He'd been in this place for ages. So why weren't they responding?

"Daphne?" he called, "It's Harry. Let me in! I need to talk to you!"

There was no response, unless you called the intensity of the wind picking up a response. If it had been any other Slytherin family's house, Harry would have passed that off as deliberate, but surely, the neutral Greengrass family wouldn't do this….

Harry sighed and the rain pattered against his face, the speed of the rain increasing as Harry huddled into a small ball, attempting to outstubborn the Greengrass protection. It was entirely possible that no one was watching his actions; after all, it had been around dinner time that Harry, Hermione and Ron had left. But surely the Greengrasses would come at the mere sound of an alarm triggering….but that was only assuming that they were as paranoid as the DA had been.

Harry sneezed suddenly and swore as he came out of his curled ball state. This was bad. A cold was the last thing he needed, because it evolved from cold, to flu….to pneumonia. Harry picked up his wand and started scanning the walls, sneezing every now and then. It was luck of course, that Harry did not own any tissues and had to resort to sniffling every five seconds through the huge deluge of rain that had most definitely increased its output on Harry.

Was the defence system trying to kill Harry? There seemed to be no end to the room and no sense of any gaps in the walls outside of the illusion. The magic itself was immensely strong; there was no chance of pulling the defences down so he could escape. However, if he could make a small hole so he could crawl out of this illusion….

Harry concentrated on the whole ward system. Warding was Bill Weasley's specialty, not Harry's but he had learnt a bit about it from Ron's gushing about it. The whole area that was warded seemed to glow, but Harry had to search for the brightest glowing area, because that was where the ward would break or bend, under immense pressure. It was easy to find, a large, almost blinding area that seemed to run along the grain of the ward. Harry assumed that that was where the entrance was, or where the ward had been created from.

Harry summoned his magic and threw it against the blind spot. It achieved nothing and his magic merely splashed all over the wards, and was absorbed by the wards, sending Harry to his knees at the lack of energy. Bill Weasley was a lot stronger than Harry gave him credit for, Harry decided, as he summoned the dredges of his magic to try again; curse-breaking required a huge amount of strength that Harry wasn't sure he possessed.

Harry threw his magic against the ward again and was annoyed as once more it was absorbed by the wards, making the ward stronger. The crack was almost non-existent by now and Harry sighed. He had to get this right. Last chance to get out of the warding system. He gathered up his magic again, focused on the crack and threw. The crack splintered, and widened, just large enough for Harry to throw himself through the hole in the wards, crashing into the wooden floor with a thump.

Harry felt iller and more tired than he had ever felt before. Briefly he could hear screams and wondered if the Greengrasses had somehow managed to get dementors as another layer of protection. But, to his surprise, a blur of blonde hair fell into his eyeline.

"Oh Merlin, Harry!" sounded a voice. It was distant but sounded concerned.

"Hi Daph. Your…wards are very good." With that, Harry felt the colours merge and blur into a deep blackness that engulfed him completely….

(X)

When Harry woke up, he was warm, which he was very grateful for. His vision was blurry so Harry attempted to sit up and get his glasses. But, he couldn't move. Kidnapping by Voldemort seemed unlikely; if he had been kidnapped by Voldemort, he'd be cold.

"You're awake." said a voice sounding bored.

"Where am I?" Harry groaned. His voice sounded hoarse and strange, even to himself.

"Greengrass Manor. I'll get Daphne." The bored voice said again.

Greengrass Manor, of course! How had he forgotten the artificial rain and the utter sense of despair? How could he have forgotten?

Harry attempted his second attempt to get up and move, but his muscles refused to cooperate with his brain. He slumped back into the bed with a sigh. A blur of blonde hair settled in front of him.

"Are you well, Harry?" asked Daphne, her voice concerned, the Ice Queen persona discarded in the comfort of her home.

"Fine, thank you." said Harry, forcing his voice outwards, "Though having my glasses and being able to move would be nice."

Daphne carefully placed the glasses on Harry's face and the world came back into clarity. The room he was in was soft and airy, with touches of decorative splendour. It was tastefully elegant; something that suited both of the Greengrasses that Harry had met.

"Movement?" Harry asked, asked politely as possible.

"Not available." said Daphne flatly as she tucked a strand of her long blonde hair behind her ear. "You exhausted your magic when you broke a hole in our wards. You had none left. Your magic still isn't quite recovered and your body is in no state to move about. Forget it."

"You sound like Madame Pomfery." Said Harry, whining a little.

Daphne smirked, before her face fell into concern again. "What were you doing Harry? Why would you come here by apparation? You knew about our wards!"

Harry shook his head with a great deal of effort that exhausted him. "I didn't know about them," Harry whispered, "I only knew that wards existed here, not any of the specifics. Your father was rather close-lipped on that matter through letter, though, while I can't blame him, I wish he'd sent it in some kind of code, so I didn't have to go through that. Don't you keep an eye on your wards at all?"

Daphne shook her head. "The house-elves do that for us, but there was a crisis in the kitchen, so the elf that was usually in charge of the wards being reached was too busy to note a tug of magic on hers. Nevertheless, she's been punished accordingly."

Harry frowned. "It wasn't her fault. Don't blame the house-elf. A kitchen problem is a kitchen problem. Don't hurt them. They'll serve you better if you treat them well."

Daphne rolled her eyes. "Have you become a SPEW advocate for Hermione then? House elves are just that. House Elves, servants. They don't want to be free."

Harry sighed. "I'm aware of that Daphne," said Harry, "Of course they don't want to be free, but to be treated well? Everyone wants that, house-elves or no. They hate getting punished, but they feel that they are bad and they deserve it."

Daphne looked confused. "But, she did deserve it. You almost died in there Harry. If it hadn't been for Story, you'd be dead of magical exhaustion."

Harry sighed, some days he forgot how stubborn purebloods could be. "Who's Story?" asked Harry.

"Astoria? My younger sister?" asked Daphne and Harry nodded in comprehension.

"Yeah, you were pretty badly off when I found you." said Astoria as she came back into the room. She wore her signature pigtails as she headed back into the room, looking tired. "Here, Daph, give him in the green one now and the purple one in ten minutes, okay?" she said as she unloaded two brightly coloured potions from the tray. "And you aren't allowed any water until you've drunk the entirety of both, okay?"

Harry pulled a face and drank. And almost choked as the taste of putrid socks filled his mouth. "Pah!" he spat, yearning to claw at his tongue. If only he could move.

Astoria smirked, and it was a cool, dark smirk. "Shut up and drink, Potter."

"Definitely not Madame Pomfery," Harry said, 'Too Slytherin for that."

"Why thank you!" Astoria beamed before walking out of the room. Daphne merely snorted.

"Is she always like that?" Harry asked.

Daphne nodded. "Yes. Story was the perfect Slytherin. From Day 1, calm and composed. You know, I don't ever remember Story crying as a baby. Not once. Strange, isn't it?"

Harry shrugged as Daphne fed him the second, rancid potion. To his surprise, he could feel his arms again. And his legs and all of his appendages. And it didn't hurt. Harry raised a hand out of the tangled bedclothes and blinked as he slapped himself.

Dpahne giggled and Harry grinned. 'This is worse that what Lockhart did to me in second year." He admitted as he attempted to get up and out of the bed without injuring himself further.

"I remember that!" she said, her eyes filling with mirth, "Malfoy crowed about it in the common room for ages!"

Harry rolled his eyes. "He would. I bet all of you laughed too."

Daphne smirked. "Of course we did. You weren't our friend then and there wasn't any permanent damage. If you'd been hurt more seriously, we'd have been concerned, but really, even you have to see the humour in that situation."

Harry sighed and rolled his eyes. "If you say so, Daphne."

"Of course I say so." She said primly, throwing her blonde hair behind her shoulder.

Harry cracked his neck, happy that at least that wasn't going too haywire. "Have you had news about Hogwarts? Since we broke into the Ministry, contact with everyone's been patchy at best."

Daphne shook her head. "Not since the beginning of October. And from what we heard, things weren't too great. Snape wasn't the worst thing there though. The Carrows were."

And Harry shut his eyes, because he remembered the two Death Eaters from that day on top of the Astronomy Tower. "How much worse than Snape's Potions lessons?" he asked, his voice nearly breathless.

"Ten. Hundred. Who knows how much more? On Neville's first day, he got slashed across the face for speaking out in Muggle Studies, where they tell you that muggles are nothing more than animals." said Daphne, sounding a little disgusted and Harry felt sick to his stomach.

"W-What are the DA doing?" Harry asked.

"Rebelling." She said, matter-of-factly, "They're not going to sit back and do nothing, especially not after last year and all the fighting we did as teams. They've been doing undercover reconnaissance mission for information and undermining purposes."

Harry frowned. 'They shouldn't be putting themselves into that much danger. Before, Dumbledore, the Ministry, they still had power. Voldemort is the God here. They should play it safe."

Daphne snorted. "Like you're playing it safe?" she asked and Harry didn't answer her. "Anyway, the thought crossed my mind that Hermione would have stopped you from doing something this dumb. Where are Gryffie One and Two?"

"Gone." Harry said dully.

Daphne frowned, she looked mightily confused. "Gone? You don't mean…"

Harry shook his head ferociously. "They aren't dead! Don't worry, they aren't dead. We…we were driving each other up the wall. You know how much we all argue. We would have killed each other if we'd stayed in that tent with that Horcrux any longer. We've decided to take a little break. Hermione's in Potter Manor. Ron's at Blaise's house. And I've come here."

Daphne looked at him shrewdly. "Why here though?"

Harry grinned. "You know me too well. Magical Oaths. Your mother's a magical lawyer. You know loopholes like the back of your hand. I made a magical oath that I need to break."

Daphne looked cold as she smirked. "Count me in. You have no idea how bored I've been here."

(X)

Harry shuffled his way down the large staircase. Daphne was with him, and they walked in silence. "Have you heard anything about Ginny?" Harry asked, unable to help himself any longer.

"Ginny Weasley? Nah. She and Neville are working together with the DA though. You know she's like spitfire. She'd probably get involved with the most dangerous stuff." said Daphne casually and Harry couldn't stop the groan from his lips.

"I heard that she and Neville had tried to steal Gryffindor's Sword from Snape's office. Then she, Luna and Neville were sent out to the Forbidden Forest with Hagrid. But Ron made a point that stuck with me. What happened inside the Forbidden Forest?" Harry narrated slowly.

Daphne shut her eyes. "You don't want to know." She said lowly.

Harry frowned. "Tell me Daphne. I need to know. What happened to Gin?"

"You won't like it." She said, simply.

Harry bowed his head. She must be injured. Brilliant. "Tell me anyway."

Daphne nodded. "They went into the forest with Hagrid and they were left there. The deal was to survive there for one night without their wands." She said, twirling a strand of her blonde hair around her fingers. "Thing is, it was a full moon night."

Harry felt his eyes widen. "Werewolves….who? Who were in there?" He knew that his voice was panicked. What if Ginny had been turned into a werewolf? He'd never stop loving her, but god she'd be so angry and bitter about herself and Harry wasn't sure he'd be able to reassure her that she was still beautiful.

"Greyback." said Daphne quietly and Harry choked a little, gripping the staircase.

"No…. NO!" He shouted and she nodded her head.

"Greyback and his cronies. But, Professor Lupin was there as well." She narrated slowly.

Harry frowned. "What difference does that make? He's rabid under the full moon too. Especially since the lycanthropy laws passed, that ban Wolfsbane. I know from personal experience that he can't stop himself without Wolfsbane."

Daphne smiled. "But there's a period of time before than when he's sane. He got them out of danger, before transforming. They spent the night up in a tree. Apparently, Luna managed to channel some magic through a pencil she was carrying on her person at the time."

Harry blinked. "That sounds like Luna. So they're really safe?"

Daphne nodded. "A few cuts, a few bruises, obviously. Nothing serious though. Your girlfriend's fine, Potter."

Harry scowled. "Like you wouldn't be concerned if Blaise had managed to get himself out there."

Daphne shrugged. "He's dealing with danger every day. I've just got to put up with it and murder him for worrying me so much once this is all over."

Harry snorted and the two of them burst into laughter as they approached the Greengrass dining room.

"Harry!" exclaimed Natalie McDonald, fourth year Gryffindor Muggleborn as they entered the room. "Are you okay now?"

"Just fine now, Natalie. How's your training coming along?" Harry said pleasantly as he grabbed a seat at the table.

She titled her head from side to side. "Not amazing. I can't do Transfiguration properly and no one can really explain it like Graham and Professor McGonagall could." She said.

"Keep up with the DA work though, okay? We'll need your spellwork when we put the plan into action." Harry said and Natalie nodded enthusiastically.

"Child soldiers, how crude." came a high aristocratic voice. A pretty brown haired lady who was calmly pouring herself tea sneered at him from across the table.

"Madam Greengrass." Harry said, tilting his head in respect. She extended a hand for him to kiss but Harry ignored it. She sniffed and withdrew it, looking darkly infuriated. "I would ask what exactly you would expect me to use against Voldemort."

"Adults." Said the lady, sniffing as she drank from the cup.

Harry snorted. "Which adults, pray tell, are volunteered to stand up to him? No one. Nobody. Ten, twenty, maybe less, maybe more. This country is under his power and they don't even know it. Guerilla warfare is all very well, but when no one is rebelling, because they're so confused, whom can I use, but the children who listen to me?"

She looked at him, down her nose. "I do believe that you spoke at the ICW and France pledged support for you?"

Harry laughed lowly and darkly. "I'm a fugitive. Who'll believe the word of a fugitive? Since Voldemort isn't outrightly declaring himself as head of Britain. France and for that matter, none of the other countries, will take action. No, they will come only at the final battle. This warfare inside our country will have to resist."

Daphne's mother now placed the cup back on the table. "So why are you here in my house, Harry Potter?"

Harry lifted his head high. "I request your daughter's help. Loopholes, I believe are your family's specialty? I need to release myself from a magical binding."

"Why, so you can escape and leave our country in this hellhole?" asked Daphne's mother, sounding crazed.

Harry rolled his eyes. "No, so I can get back to risking my life everyday so that Voldemort will de in a hole somewhere and all of his followers disappear. I've been sworn to not continue on my quest alone."

The lady sniffed again and drunk the contents of the cup. "Easy to find the loophole around that one. Find someone else to go on your quest with you."

Harry shook his head. "Not happening. Too dangerous for anyone else."

She narrowed her eyes. "So you will let children fight to their deaths, but your quest is too dangerous for them to undertake?"

"Yes." Harry said, "Because at least when they fight, they will fight death eaters, who are fallible, who will die when shot at the right moment. My quest takes me directly against Voldemort, who is currently immortal. It is almost definitely a suicide mission, but I'm the only one who can do it. So find me a loophole, if you want your precious country to be brought out of this hellhole!" Harry was snarling by the end of the sentence and standing. The children and other muggles who were gathered around the table looked terrified and Harry was aware of how it might look.

Harry sat down next to Daphne who hadn't moved or spoken throughout the entire exchange. "I see only one way for you to get out of the vow, and that's on what you swore against." She said, finally.

"My parent's graves." said Harry, looking away.

Daphne nodded. "Then we go to your parents graves, and make sure that any magic that resides there is wiped out. Then, you can continue on your suicidal quest for danger."

"What?" asked Astoria, who had come in to hear only that. "But he's ill! You can't just let him go back out there Daph! Not in this state!"

Daphne's expression didn't change from its stony state. "Not in this state, no. But once you're well, we'll go there. We'll make plans of course, I have no intention of being caught or dying. Now then, shall we finish eating?"

"How can you help him kill himself in this way?" screamed Astoria, her blond hair, flying out of its braid.

Daphne finally looked up. "Aren't you neutral, Story? Why do you care?"

Astoria burst into tears. "I don't want anybody to die!" she whimpered.

Harry sighed wryly. "It's a war, Astoria. We're at war. People are going to die. Everyone dies eventually. You'll have to accept that at some point."

Astoria sniffed and everyone was silent. Daphne picked up her cup, stood up and walked out of the dining room, looking annoyed. Harry was left feeling a little bitter and a little more empty. Ron would be furious, Harry mused as he finished his peas in the stony silence, but this quest was what Dumbledore had died for. And Harry would see it through to its end, even if it was his end.

**AN: Review! Review! Review! I can't say it enough, I want your feedback, good or bad! I welcome criticism, as long as you tell me how to improve! I'm neglecting my science project for this! This chapter is a little less expositiony, I've noticed, I wanted to try out a new style where the family life isn't explicitly told, merely shown. Where the character study is a little more subtle. I don't know if it worked. Tell me what you think!**


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